Turned Tables
by Fullmetal.Alchemist.Fan
Summary: Edward Elric has feelings for Roy Mustang. And Roy Mustang is a homophobe. But what happens after Ed gets rejected after confessing his feelings to his one and only true crush? Turned tables is the answer. RoyEd/EdRoy, lemon possible in the future.
1. Chapter 1

**I apologize for all OOC-ness, because there's going to be a lot of it.**

Edward Elric, from the time he was eleven, had always had an infatuation with Roy Mustang. Once he had put his childish stubbornness away when he got older, he realized how the Colonel got so many women to be with him for only one night and not mind one bit. Who could resist the black shaggy hair, the onyx-blue eyes, the broad build of his chest and shoulders that were only emphasized by his military work uniform's shoulder pads. The daunting smirk that infatuated him but at the same time pissed him off.

It was infuriating, working with the single person he loved-in _this_ way-and not being able to say his first name without a frown from the older man, not being able to hug him on his way back to Intelligence because of the lonely hours apart while he had to deal with Hughes, not being able to walk home with him nor even walk him home. Heck, he'd give almost anything to walk him home right now.

He was sure that Roy knew something was troubling him; otherwise he wouldn't be giving him such weird looks and sympathy-fueled offers that meant shit to Ed. _Would you like a military coat? They're much warmer than that 20-year-old short jacket you have on..._ or _Are you feeling sick and _short _of 52 cards in your deck, Fullmetal? Why don't you rest; Hughes will be happy to fill in for you until you feel better, and you know that…_ and even _I'm not a suit of armor but I can give you a sort of piggyback ride home. I won't be home for a couple more hours because of this damned paperwork so you can borrow my cab. Don't worry-I'll pay for it. You'll just pay back with assignments. At least you know how to do _that_, right?_ Why the hell would he go on another assignment? That was the reason he joined Intelligence! He loved his work and got to sit at an air-conditioned desk all day and at least he knew _someone_ in the office. And one thing that always ticked him off was how Mustang still called him Fullmetal. _Fullmetal, work on this case file, I'm sure it's _short _enough for you to read it by the time I get back from lunch_…and _Damn it, Fullmetal! You didn't even _go _to Youswell and you managed to blow up three buildings in the town. Just because you're making all this money doesn't mean you get to bribe people to do the things you wish you could do!_ First of all, he _did __**not**_ blow up any buildings, bribe or otherwise. He worked in Intelligence for the Gate's sake! Colonel Moron was more like it. The damn bastard was even being considered for a promotion!

At least he got to work with him sometimes. Even though Roy and Hughes were best friends, Hughes was simply not part of _the team_. The team consisted of, of course, Colonel Roy Mustang, First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye, the boys Havoc, Breda, Falman, and Fuery (who Ed didn't give a shit about their ranks nor their first names), and himself, Major Edward Elric. Edward may have moved to a totally different part of East Headquarters but that didn't stop Colonel Shit from calling for him every second of the day, whining whilst atop his high mustang.

"Hahaha," Edward laughed bitterly to himself, thinking that no one else heard him.

"Hey, Ed, just 'cause you have a crush on Sarah at the front desk doesn't mean you can daydream all day!" Hughes' chuckle came out of nowhere and startled Ed. The blonde almost leaped out of his chair at the sudden intrusion of noise and glared at the family man.

Hughes whacked Ed on the back-who wasn't expecting it so he almost banged his head on the desk he worked at night and day-and laughed out loud, putting his fists on his hips and throwing his head back for emphasis, "Why don't you just ask her out?"

"I already told you-I'm gay you moron!" Ed hissed at his new superior officer, "I barely know who she is!"

"Well, you _were_ staring," Hughes pointed out, then jerked his head sideways at the girl called Sarah. The brunette smiled sweetly at Ed and wiggled her fingers at him in a flirty greeting.

Ed rolled his eyes at her, earning a sneer from her when he turned his back to talk to Hughes.

"Look, I'm just concerned about my relationship with a, well, I guess you could call them a friend, and I've just been so absorbed in it," Ed explained, trying to be mature. He had been practicing this new, out of character behavior and it seemed to earn him a more favorable place in the office, especially since Hughes' own group of employees had been expecting an angry runt with fists of steel and cold, unyielding fury. Unyielding _Fuery_. The young blonde still had a horrible sense of humor when it came to the lighthearted spectrum of jokes, though, which bothered everyone just as much as Hughes' picture tirades.

"Is this someone I know?" Hughes raised an eyebrow and smiled, leaning in closer to Ed.

Edward backed away and raised an eyebrow as well, "Meh, I guess so." He would die before he gave away the identity of the highlight of his thoughts and dreams to Hughes. Especially Hughes.

Hughes leaned back and laughed again. Thankfully, the laugh was shorter this time and Ed could hear a whoosh of air in the room, which was probably everyone's relieved sigh but could be easily mistaken as a common, second-long mishap with the air conditioner.

"Look Ed, you can come talk to me anytime you want, alright?"

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ed looked away so that he wouldn't blush. Hughes moved around Ed's personal space to look the 17-year-old in the eye, but shrugged when Ed wouldn't even glance at him and walked away. Hughes raised a hand and waved over his shoulder, "Talk! Anytime! M'kay, glad we had this little, erm…whatever it is."

"Sure whatever," Ed sighed and rolled his eyes. He sat back down and picked up a case file buried between a bunch of others he had saved. The other reason that he had a good social ranking in the office is because he went through case files like Breda could down hot tamales. Edward also tended to save the ones that stuck out like a sore thumb to him-ones that disgusted him, cases he simply liked to go back and look over, or mysteries that he was proud of solving. But he also saved most of the ones from Colonel Mustang, though he did it discreetly as hell to avoid suspicion from a certain spectacled Lieutenant Colonel. For one, it smelled like Roy. He couldn't quite place the smell but he sure as hell recognized it. Second of all, well…there was his crush/love for the older man. He felt like there should have been a thousand reasons he could name with ease but he could only come up with two. Screw his hormones.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Ahhhhh~-AHHHHH~!" Edward stretched and stood up out of his swivel chair that was oh-so similar to Colonel Mustang's but oh-so not as comfortable. Still comfortable as shit though. Good kind of shit.

"Man, I've been waiting for the end of the day~" Ed purred through tight lips, raised his interlocked hands above his head in a bone-popping, muscle rolling stretch that felt really good after sitting at his desk all day. He also felt really good because Hughes hadn't flashed photos to him all day. The victim was some Second Lieutenant across the room in the morning, her face contorted with multiple negative emotions as polaroid after polaroid was shoved into all aspects of her vision.

"So we could spend time together?" a small voice continued his sentence, and Ed whipped around, lucky that the woman was way shorter than him. Otherwise he would have punched the daylights out of her with his right elbow. His right _flesh_ elbow. Edward beamed with pride at the thought, which made Sarah think that he was smiling at her. She returned the smile.

"So where would you like to go?"

"Huh?" Ed frowned and looked down at her.

"Where would you like to go?" Sarah purred, thinking that Ed was saying that because he wanted to skip the restaurant and go straight home with her.

"Uh, home?" Ed raised an eyebrow, "Why are you asking?"

"Well don't I have to know where I'm going?" Sarah pouted.

"You're going home, I'm going home," Ed put his arms down a bit to rest lazily on the top of his head and he shrugged a bit, "I would assume you knew your way home."

"I don't know where your home is, silly~" Sarah pouted playfully, then smile seductively, "Or were you hoping out loud that I did?"

"Why would I…wait a minute, what?" Ed frowned even more, "You're going to _your_ home, I'm going to _my _home, Sarah. What would make you think we're going to the same house?"

"I thought we were spending time together. You said that you couldn't wait for the end of the day just now," Sarah frowned as well.

"Yeah, because I want to go home and rest my tired bones. I mean, come on, I'm not used to sitting in a soft chair all day, I'm used to going out all day and either sitting in a _hard, wooden_ chair or going out in the field and doing grueling, bloody missions."

"Oh," Sarah bit her lip in anticipation, "So maybe another time?"

"_No_," Ed rolled his eyes again, "I don't have any feelings for _anyone_, and that includes you, Sarah."

Sarah pursed her lips, looking like she was about to cry, and stalked away, stomping on the floor. Ed almost wished that the floor was carpet so that he couldn't hear her boots attacking the floor.

After her footstomps faded away, Ed sighed and picked up his laptop bag, which reminded him of Kain Fuery. He-Kain, of course-had the idea because of his annoyance with having to carry a briefcase everywhere, and called it a laptop bag because you could rest the bag on your lap, pull out whatever papers you needed, and rest the papers on top of the bag and use the bag as an easy desk wherever a real one wasn't available. The one Edward had was the second one that had ever been produced-Kain, of course, had the first one. Most soldiers preferred briefcases, since they were usually above 25 years of age, but Ed, being a teenager, secretly and in the back of his mind saw it as cool and happily took the summer holiday present from Kain. He used it every day and now his old brown suitcase he used for missions felt a little weird to carry around now, but he kept it for the sake of memories. Speaking of memories, he should probably stay awake for at least a little while if Alphonse called him from work. On the rare chance that Al actually went to his work building instead of staying at home. He had an admirable profession by Ed's standards, since Al was really never one for alchemy-he loved the science but could never, ever have an obsession for it like Edward did. Because of this, Al had been searching for something else to do with his life and Ed was worried he would pick something with low pay or a horrible boss or even worse, something he'd have to suffer through, like a contract, or have to go through multiple jobs to find the one he wanted. But Alphonse is an Elric-nyarharhar-and figured out soon what he wanted to do with his next 70+ years.

As Edward left the building, a hair landed under his nose and he almost sneezed on it, which would blow it away. But luckily, he saw the hair a millisecond before it landed. It was a black hair, and Ed pulled the lock from under his nose before the gust of air and germs blasting out of his nose could send it flying where he'd never find it again (unless he made a fool of himself looking for it). Which would only make Hughes think he was going crazy instead of the excuse he made earlier.

Ed studied the black lock of hair and, once he wiped his nose, dared to sniff it. Once he got a whiff he was all over it, staring at it with wide eyes and holding it as close as he could-or dared to-to his eyes.

"HEY CHIEF!" someone whacked him in the back-judging by the meaty, good-sized hand it was a man, either Havoc or Breda-and the hair went in his eye.

"Agh! AGH! The _HAIR_!" Ed sputtered.

"What?" the man went around the boy to face him and through the tears and the blinking Edward recognized Havoc.

"The hair! The hair went in my eye!" Edward coughed for no reason-probably just for the attention, actually.

"_The_ hair?" Havoc chuckled, holding one side of Edward Elric's forehead with his hand. The steadiness provided by it calmed the teen down enough to skillfully take the long hair out of his vision. The pain subsided after some patience (and vigorous rubbing motions to the source of pain).

Havoc studied the hair from where he was with his hands in his pockets and raised an eyebrow at it, "So…I believe that isn't your hair. Unless you have something to confess?"

"What the fuck Havoc," Ed rubbed his eyes again, the after-effects of a snarl framing his mouth.

"Yup, you're Edward, at least," Havoc shrugged.

"…" Edward glared at Havoc through his hands, "What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Talking. About?"

Havoc shrugged again and looked up at Ed from the lower step he was situated on, "The Colonel didn't call for you all day."

"No shit."

"Well, _Chief_, is something up between you two? You guys can't get a room anymore?" Havoc smiled, anticipating Ed's reaction.

"THE HELL? What the HELL? Havoc, what would make you assume that I even would think about sharing an APARTMENT BUILDING with that _bastaaarrrrrrrrrrrd!_" Edward screamed. The military officers around them made a wide arc around the two, not wanting to be subject to any flying fists-or bodies-if the ex-state alchemist went on a rampage.

Havoc shrugged again.

"STOP SHRUGGING FOR THE GATE'S SAKE!"

Havoc smiled and _shrugged_, "Sorry Chief, it's a habit I have."

"Yeah, yeah, I know, since you were fucking ten years old," Edward rolled his eyes for the tenth time that day, "I don't really care."

"I know you don't, Chief," Havoc grinned even wider and reached around in his left pocket, only to find no cigarettes, "Agh, I can't even believe I agreed to quit smoking."

"Smoking's bad for your lungs," Edward shuddered in disgust, "I've seen lungs after just five years of smoking. Two words: not, pretty."

Havoc chuckled, "I believe you, Chief."

"Why do you call me Chief anyway?"

"I d'know," Havoc went to shrug but stopped himself, seeing that Edward could snap at any moment, "So what about the hair?"

"The hair?" Ed looked down at his hand, "Oh, this!" The blonde teen held it up for Havoc to see, "I almost sneezed on it!"

"Mm, so?"

"_So_…it's…" Edward mentally cursed himself. Havoc didn't know about his crush yet! Even if he told him he was crushing on a person he hadn't met before, he'd just say it was the Colonel and that he was right about him screwing around with the other. And then he'd start asking him the more intimate, private questions.

"It's…for testing."

"Testing?"

"Yeah…testing!" Edward held it up to the dimming light of the soon-to-come sunset, "I wanted to try looking at a piece of hair under a microscope, a total, um, random piece of hair, and now I don't even have to ask anyone for it! Lucky~"

Havoc stared at him skeptically, then sighed and continued down the steps, "Good luck with that, Chief."

"Ah, erm, thank you?" Ed bit his lip, waiting for Havoc to get a distance away from him, then looked at the hair again. _Oh Roy Mustang, if only you _knew_…_

That thought gave Ed an idea; the second stupidest idea he had _ever_ come up with.

:~H.n.R.~:

"I'll see you tomorrow, First Lieutenant," Roy called from the middle of his secluded office.

"The thought is returned, sir," Riza saluted and left the outside office.

Roy sighed and leaned back against his desk. It hadn't been as long as a day as he had ever experienced, but it was boring as hell. Nothing that even peaked his rage, which was also hell, but rare as hell, not boring as…who was he kidding? He was so bored he couldn't even think witty thoughts. Man, when Fullmetal was in the office, he was always on his toes. He never needed brain training-he had a blonde runt for that. Roy could've swore that he swore once or twice that he could make a joke book with all the comments directed at the boy. No, the kid was almost a grown man, even by the government's standards. 18 was the age where a boy became a legal man, where a lady became a legal woman, right? Well, right now, he couldn't care less. He just wanted to go on an overly stimulating date so he could get back on his witty train of thought.

Sifting through the names in his head-he knew for a fact that he only remembered the names of the women he actually had an interest in-he found that he kept coming back to a petite young blonde woman from Intelligence. This reminded him of Hughes. Oh God. This made him realize that he wasn't just bored and remember that he had been quenching the puke he had been holding in all day. What made him puke again? Oh yeah, Hughes' leftover breakfast he gave him three months ago that he decided to finally finish off. Hughes. Maes Hughes. Oh _God_.

The Colonel ran to the bathroom and coughed, rushing to the sink. He hated puking! He quickly splashed multiple handfuls of tap water into his mouth, not caring if it tasted bad. He stood for a while with his dizzy head hanging back limply until the sick feeling in his stomach traveled to his intestines. _Lucky bastard_, Roy chuckled inwardly at himself and rushed into a bathroom.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Ah, I feel so much better~" Roy sing-songed as he left East Headquarters. Putting his hands in his pockets, he was glad he got the weekend off. That meant he could leave all his stuff at HQ. Which meant no annoying briefcase.

As he strolled past the park on the way to his house, he stopped when something caught his eye. Dark gold hair. Edward? It had to be. He turned around 90 degrees and stared into the park, wondering why Edward would come here of all places. Was the depressed kid here to cheer himself up? About time. Roy looked forward to seeing the kid-no, teenager-after not having to call him all day. _It was so boring, we did nothing and even Riza didn't shoot at us for it because she knew that there was nothing to do. It was like the papers were purposely being sent to other offices. What d-_Roy stopped his train of thought in fear of speaking it out loud and not having the advantage of surprise on Ed. The young man was sitting on a wooden park bench, hands flat against the seat of the bench and between his legs. Roy saw that he was sitting on his hands. Why? Was he hiding something he was holding? This only made Roy even more curious as to what was going on in his head.

"Hey, Fullmetal," Roy said, trying to put his smirk into his voice. The ex-state alchemist slowly looked up in front of him, then slid around to look at Roy.

"Hey," he whispered, propping his hand up on the back of the bench, his fist closed, "I've actually been wondering when the next time I'd see you was."

"Guess you don't have to anymore," Roy smirked.

Ed simply stared at him, no emotion showing too prominently on his face.

Roy's smirk faltered for a second, then shone just as brightly, "So what _is_ wrong with you, anyway? You've been so depressed after Al got his body back. Shouldn't you be happy? …Happier?"

The side of Edward's mouth twitched and he slid back around to how he was sitting before, but now his hands were in plain view.

"What have you got in your hand there, Fullmetal? Can't be 'equipment', can it? Aren't you too young for that?"

"Shut up," Edward snarled.

"Geez, calm your shit," Roy smirked again and sat down next to the young man, "But seriously."

"Nothing's wrong; just lovesick," Ed sighed.

_If the kid…is confessing this to me, then he must really be in a shameless state right now_, Roy thought sympathetically, _He thinks I can help_. "Who is the object of your dreams exactly?"

And with that statement, Edward Elric got up and briskly left the park.

**A/N: Yeah, a lot of small talk in this one. I was trying to elongate it and put something meaningful in there, but at least you guys get a standing of where Havoc and Hughes are in all this. *shrug* Oh yeah, and Alphonse's profession. I always think about Ed doing what Al's profession will be in this because I just like thinking Edward can do everything, but if Ed had Al's profession then he wouldn't have much contact with Roy and where would all the angst go?**

**Harry: ANGST. *bump* ANGST. *bump* ANGST. *bump***

**Yes, we know, Harry POTTAH, we know.**

**There was a fanfiction on, well, that finally pushed me over the edge to write this. I guess. I think. It's the one I'm reading now anyway. *shrug* I read a lot of RoyEd fanfiction, so I don't really remember titles much. I'll write it down when I get back to it.**

**EDIT **

**It's called Paper in Fire by UP2L8. Stupid me wasn't thinking about checking Safari on my iPod Touch. :B**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: I just realized that there is a song by Adele called "Turning Tables". Huh. Never knew that. (I'm serious!)**

**So I'm probably gonna include those song lyrics in one of the chapters. Maybe in an intermission. We'll just have to wait and see, won't we? :)**

"_So what _is _wrong with you, anyway? You've been so depressed after Al got his body back. Shouldn't you be happy? …Happier?"_

_Edward's mouth twitched, threatening to form into a sarcastic smile. Not thinking, he turned his hands over to reposition himself, but froze when Roy spoke again._

"_What have you got in your hand there, Fullmetal? Can't be 'equipment', can it? Aren't you too young for that?" Roy smirked, knowing full well that this was the one topic that made Edward squirm._

"_Shut up," Ed responded angrily, trying not to blush._

"_Geez, calm your shit. But seriously."_

"_Nothing's wrong; just lovesick."_

_Roy's smirk faltered for a spilt second, then came back stronger than ever, "Who is the object of your dreams exactly?"_

_And with that statement, Edward Elric got up and briskly left the park._

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward stalked down the street briskly, trying to keep his mind off of Roy Mustang. Mustang, Mustang, Mustang. Why did he keep thinking of the Colonel? It infuriated him to the point of punching that blond-headed kid walking a quite a few paces ahead of him. Wait, blonde? That wasn't exactly the most common hair color in Amestris. And Havoc had probably either gone home, on a date, or to a bar (or all three) at least an hour ago. So that meant that it was…

Alphonse!

Edward almost called out to his little brother in glee, which was a rather big change in his mood for the day, but decided on scaring the youngest Elric first and pretty much stalked him all the way home. He must've had this cocky, shit-eating grin on his face, because the people passing him in the street were giving him this strange look as they passed, each contorted expression more amusing than the last. At least to him, anyway.

Once Alphonse went up the steps and reached the door to their red-brick "house" (it was a rather strange building, built more like three large apartments and each one was stacked on the other), Edward hid in an alley far away enough from his brother's peripheral vision and waited for Al to find his key, insert it in the brass lock, turn the small piece of metal, and enter their home. Then Edward dashed up to the door as quietly as he could and caught the door, just as planned, right as it was a millisecond away from locking Edward out. He could open it again with his key, regardless, but that would ruin his newfound obsession. He waited ten seconds-that's all Al took to walk away from the door at such a distance that he wouldn't hear the door quietly open-and then entered into the main hallway of their apartment. Then elder Elric tip-toed to the doorway of the kitchen and expertly hid against the wall on the hallway side of the entrance, and peeked into the kitchen.

Alphonse had made himself a cup of tea with a bit of sugar in it, with the tea bag kept in the cup until he finished, just the way he liked it. The blonde sipped from the cup, eyes closed in delight, and set the cup down on the table and picked up a newspaper and opened it to the business section. Another thing that seemed to delight Al more than alchemy was the stock market. And investments. Something Ed could understand but never in his life-and afterlife-be patient enough to deal with. So he left it to Al, who was happy to accommodate his older brother's shortcomings.

Edward, glad for keeping an attachable hood for rainy days in his laptop bag, snapped it onto his uniform as quietly as possible and covered his face as much as possible with the hood and his long bangs. Mimicking a shadow, he ghosted into the room and stood at the other end of the kitchen table behind Alphonse's back.

"_Alphonse_," Edward hissed gleefully, "_How nice to find you here…_"

Al's shoulders jerked up for a second in surprise, tearing the newspaper's edges a bit. Then he slowly turned around in his chair and smiled at the figure, "Is that you, brother? You should know you are probably the only person in the world with bangs like that."

Ed tore the hood off and threw it on the tiled ground, "GOD DAMMIT! URGHHH!" He jumped up and down on the hood like the childish attitude he still had buried in the back of his mind.

Alphonse laughed, then tried to become more serious, "So what's bothering you? You've been trying really hard to act mature recently and that isn't exactly…_mature_."

Edward just stood there with a slight frown, still standing on the hood, "What? How…how did you know?"

"I just do."

Ed seethed, trying to control his temper, "I'm just lovesick." If he told Roy he could tell his brother, right? What was he thinking? How could he tell that bastard anything before his beloved brother, the only thing he had left in the world? BASTAAARRRRD!

"Lovesick?" Alphonse seemed astonished that his brother could actually have feelings for anyone, "Who?"

"Ummm, well…" Ed shifted and scuffled his feet, "Promise not to tell? Or hate me for it?"

"Brother…" Alphonse gave him a sweet smile, "I won't tell, of course, and I couldn't hate you if I tried! You can tell me anything, brother."

"Mmmm, well…" the elder Elric blushed furiously, "It's Roy."

Al's eyes became saucers, "What."

"It's Roy, Al."

"What the hell Ed."

"See, I told you you would hate me!"

"No, _I _don't hate _you_, _you_ hate _him!_"

"Well, apparently _not_!" Ed blushed angrily now.

Alphonse slid a hand slowly over his face, "That's spectacular. I mean, because, Roy thinks you hate him so he's probably being all sympathetic and stuff towards you now."

"It's _shit_, Al, not _stuff_," Ed corrected, "And you're right, he _is._ And it's pissing me off!"

"Well why don't you just tell him?" his younger brother questioned.

"Al, you basically know nothing about this. I can't just tell him! We've been colleagues…well, frenemies or whatever the hell girls call it for, what, eight, nine years now? Also, if we end up dating, he and I would be court martialed for fraternization, him even more than me. Plus, pretend you're Roy Mustang and I just walk up to you and say, 'Hey, you butt-ugly bastard, I have recently recollected the memory of my hormones raging through my secretive areas and I have come to the realization that these hormones are directing me towards my counterpart, which fortunately is attached to your delicious, muscular body.'"

"Wha-ha-hat?" Al broke into a fit of laughs and giggles, "'Delicious, muscular body?'"

"Shut up! You're missing the point!" Edward retorted angrily, losing his patience with the one he held dear.

Alphonse wiped tears from his eyes and smiled with an amused face at his brother, "I think you should tell him that as a joke. He'd love that."

"ALLLLL!"

"Okay, okay!" the younger Elric put his hands up in defense, "I know, I know…Hmmm…You could probably just get closer to him. Become 'friends' instead of…of…"

"Frenemies."

"Yeah, yeah," Al nodded, continuing with his self-appointed monologue, "And he'll warm up to you, and just ease into it."

"How?" Ed retorted, exasperated from having to question and advise his brother so much when he should be spilling _his _guts to the same person!

"That's for you to decide," Al got more serious, "I'm not your life coach."

**A/N: And that's it!**

**SO, now I have to apologize…**

**I AM SOOOO sorry for putting this up later than planned! I told my first reviewer for this story-YAY!-that I would have it up by Saturday and actually planned to have it up by Sunday evening at the latest. But now it's **_**Tuesday**_**. You may say I'm freaking out, but that just doesn't **_**roll**_** with homework in my school. If you didn't even pull your homework out by the time the bell rings, you get detention AND have to talk to the vice principal.**

**I know you don't want to hear about that, but I'm just explaining so I don't have to in the future. :3 That said, I'll try to plan out my fanfiction schedule more appropriately in the future now that I know.**

**Anyway, I **_**also**_** know you guys were kind of expecting Al's profession to be revealed in this chapter. But because of me cutting the chapter short so that the deadline wasn't extended **_**another two days**_**, this is mainly about Ed and Al's "argument" over Roy. (Three-way fanfiction anyone? XD) So, in response, the third chapter **_**will not **_**be about Roy and Ed at work and will instead be a continuation of Ed and Al at home. So I guess I'm one of the few fanfic authors who actually tells their plans to their readers. Well, I'm just like that. :) I like being told that, so I just reiterate it. If you don't like it you don't have to read/only skim over the Author's Note. It's that simple.**

**Anyway, see you next time! :D**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: I forgot a disclaimer in the last two chapters, so before anyone reprimands me:**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist nor any of the characters in this fanfiction (except for that bluh-bluh-bitch Sally). Any of the events or places in this fanfiction do not represent real life on purpose, as this is the result of a series of RoyEd daydreams. **

**Also, if you review, please be sure to turn on your private messaging feature or I cannot reply to your oh-so-welcomed reviews! Very welcomed…hint. Hint. So, for those people who I wasn't able to reply to, I will post their answers in the A/N at the beginning of the chapter. And you may get lengthy replies, so beware!**

**To Louis1:**

**Thank you! I will admit this: I basically think about RoyEd as much as I can, even in school. Sometimes I blank out and forget to listen to people for a moment! Don't worry-it doesn't interfere with anything that much. But yes, one of the reasons I chose to write this RoyEd fantasy up is because it was a plot I really liked. Usually I switch plots in my head when Roy and Edward are in a stable relationship of sorts, but this one continued farther than that. Also, another reason is that I was really inspired by the the fic I posted at the end of the first chapter, so I just decided to start writing my own. I had always been afraid of posting my yaoi ideas on deviantart since some of my friends do not like any hint of yaoi, but I had remembered that I could still post things through my old fanfiction account, so that's why I have all those others stories on my profile but just don't mention their summaries. So I plan on practicing the yaoi-things, and hopefully my plots will get even better!**

**As a continuation to that-yes, I know, you're bored, but you don't have to read this so if you are bored why are you?-if I am feeling brave I will add some adultish parts at the end. But we have a long way to go from here! For you angst-lovers, you're going to enjoy the ride. *laughs at corny joke* So…**

**On to…**

_**THE CHAPTER. MWAHAHAHAHHA…**_

"_Hmmmm…calm down and let me think of an idea, you're not helping with all this screaming!" Alphonse put his hands up and scowled in his defense, "I know! You could probably just…get _closer _to him. Become friends instead of…of…"_

"_Frenemies," Edward offered, rolling his eyes. His brother was probably still concentrating on the stock market!_

"_Yeah, yeah," Al dismissed Edward quickly, "And eventually, he'll get closer to you. And you can get a room. Or whatever."_

"_How?" Ed threw his hands in exasperation, his foul mood dismissing the underlying insulting comment._

"_That's for you to decide; I'm not your life coach," Al gave his brother a stern gaze before getting back to his one-man tea party._

:~H.n.R~:

Edward threw his hands up in the air in disgust again and exited the kitchen with a huff of disappointment. He and Al had always confronted each other with their problems before and never had a problem with trying to help and advise the other to the best of their abilities. But now Al was abandoning him? Not that it was right of him to think that, since he was the one who accused Al of knowing nothing on the subject, but Ed was pissed right now and when that happened all weird thoughts constituted as correct and valid to the elder Elric.

He continued up the wooden steps, entered his bedroom, and flopped down onto the bed on the right. His bedroom had a wooden floor-because his mother's house had one-and cream yellow walls-to brighten his moody days-with an onyx black ceiling-to represent the night sky._ Like the color of Roy's eyes and hair._ Luckily Ed was facing his sheets, so he couldn't be reminded of that right now. Besides that, there were two beds on each side of the room facing the doorway, and each bed could fit two grown people if they didn't mind resting against each other quite a lot whilst they slept. _It would be essential to get rid of the other bed before he brings Roy over for a date._ Dammit, now he was angry at his bed, too! Ed flopped over, saw the ceiling, and loosened the boot on his right foot. Then he aimed and chucked it at the ceiling, and the black boot came bouncing back his way and the heel caught him right on his chestbone.

A whoosh of air came out of Ed, earning a surprised expression from the young man, but this failure only pissed him off further. So he took off his other boot forcefully and chucked that one. That boot came flying back like a wasp diving in for the attack right at the center of his forehead. Ed clutched his forehead, closed his head, and clenched his teeth pain. The man rolled over and back, trying to occupy his mind and distract it from the bruise.

Hearing the _thumps_ and _bumps_ coming from upstairs, Alphonse rushed upstairs to see how his brother had unintentionally abused himself this time.

When he saw his brother knocked out cold and wearing the sleeping face of a baby, he smiled sweetly, turned off the lights, and shut the door.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Good evening, brother," Al raised his eyes from the newspaper to smile welcomingly at his brother.

Edward rubbed the side of his head, the pain slowly ebbing away, "Is that newspaper glued to your hands or something?"

Al simply continued to smile, at which Ed averted his gaze. He didn't know where, but Al picked up some way to be creepy from their travels as young teens. How he learned so quickly when he used to have a metal body that he had no way to practice with, Edward would never know.

"So I'm cooking?" Al questioned when his brother sat down in a wooden chair.

"Damn straight."

"Alright, I'm getting take-out," Al got up from his chair-newspaper simply folded in one hand-and went over to the white phone under the cabinets across the elongated room.

Edward sighed, "I forgot to mention; yesterday The Ungrateful Bastard told me something."

"What was it?"

"He said he was having a dinner party tonight at 7 PM. And I meant that since it was your turn to cook, you would cook the shit we're bringing over to his personal hellhole."

"Edward, when will you learn that it is very ungentlemanly to cook excrement?" Al tsk-tsked and shook his head, "My, my, do you need a lesson."

"Alphonse, cut the crap!" Ed seethed, then leaned over in pain when his shout only furthered the painful throbbing.

Al smiled again and said, "I guess I'll make shrimp."

_Twitch._

:~H.n.R~:

A middle-aged man stood in his bedroom, facing his dark, wooden mirror. Currently the raven-haired man was straightening his tie with two hands, contemplating whether he should have the tie curved and popping out a bit from his chest, or flat against his chest to show off his breast. Which reminded him, he'd have to not mention this to any of his "company" until it's history, or else they'll get offended and ask why they hadn't been invited.

The man, named Roy, was just about to fuck it and flip a coin to decide when he heard someone knocking on the front door. Roy turned his head, smiling. At least he could just leave the tie the way it was, so now he didn't have to decide!

_What kind of life am I leading? _Roy shook his head sadly and walked downstairs to go open the door for his first guest. _I even invited Fullmetal to this party…why the heck did I do that anyway? Meh, probably because at least I have an excuse to stay away from Hughes. No matter how much of a pain Fullmetal is, Hughes is worse. _Way _worse._

Roy put on his best welcoming smile and opened the door to a frustrated blonde.

"Hey shithead I brought presents," Edward scowled at him, holding a tin foil-covered pan in one hand and holding a rather heavy-looking tan overcoat in the other. Wait, heavy? What?

"Is that…Alphonse?" Roy raised an eyebrow and stood aside as Edward welcomed himself inside the older man's abode.

"Yes it is, you moronic shit. Who the hell do you think it is, Marie Curie1?"

"Knowing you…" Roy trailed off. Ed gave him as best of an animalistic snarl he could.

"So what did you bring? It's hard to believe you'd actually make anything," Roy thought for a moment, then continued as Ed glared at him expectantly, "Either you bought that or you poisoned it. Or both. I think the last choice sounds more probable."

"Shut it, haybrain. Alphonse made it!" Ed hissed back.

"By the way, where is Alphonse?"

"Marie Curie!" Ed screamed in a fit of rage, dropping the "coat" and stalking towards where he thought the kitchen was to drop off their dish.

"Hey, Alphonse," Roy leaned over and peered down at the body in the coat. Innocent-looking, gold eyes slowly opened and looked back into raven ones, a large red-purple bruise laying above and in between the treasured, sparkling family heirlooms.

"Hey…" Alphonse looked confused for a moment, then he smiled, "Guess what I made."

"Shrimp?"

_Twitch._

:~H.n.R.~:

All in all, the guests that came were (yes I will list them, because that's what assholes do): the Hughes', Havoc and Sarah (who was forced to be Havoc's date by Maes and keeps giving Edward either a sly wink or deathly glares), the Falmans' (apparently the quiet, graying soldier had an wife and kids who didn't live with him but were still part of the family for the regular reasons of military life affecting the rest of the family), Breda and his date (a hotdog) who he keeps kissing (it's almost gone now), Fuery (who seemed perfectly content with coming alone but nervous about the trip back to the dorms in the middle of the night), Riza Hawkeye and Black Hayate (who everyone who didn't know the dog nor the owner suspected to wreck the house but was staying quite obedient), and a few friends who Roy knew from earlier in his military career and at the Academy, not to mention Edward and Alphonse.

And right now Maes Hughes was bothering Edward about his love life. Again.

"You need to get a wife! You're getting Roy's old age-if that makes any sense-and you need to settle down! You two want to live together for the rest of your life?" Hughes playfully scolded the temperamental Elric.

"Fff…Please, Mr. Hughes, don't, just, stop talking to me right now," Ed put a hand on his forehead and shook his head as if he had a headache. Which he still kind of did. From Roy's pans and pots. But we don't know that because we were never told that, were we? Right? RIGHT?

"Why don't you-hey Sarah!" Hughes reached out his arm and pulled Sarah away from a conversation, "Why don't you marry this fine lady? You _were_ staring at her this morning!"

This perked Roy's interest.

"And what about that gal, uh, Winry? I know her name, don't give me that look! Why don't you hook up with her?"

"We're only friends!" Ed rolled his eyes; he felt like screaming! "And you know that story already, why are you even ranting about that?"

"So what _is_ the story, per se?" Roy smiling and dropped his arm painfully on Ed's left shoulder and leaned on the shorter alchemist.

"None of your-"

"Oh, Edward had finally had some time to himself so he let his hormones rage. He was confused whereas everyone else his age had already figured out who they liked, or were way more along in the process than Edward. So our little Eddy here went off to explore his sexuality, and you know that fifteen-year-old blond you hit on a few years ago when Ed was still under your command? Well she's Ed's age-not like that changed, 'cause that would be weird-and of course Winry thought she liked Ed and Ed was confused about who he liked like I already mentioned so they became lovers and they were all hesitant and shy and it was kind of funny because Ed came to me and asked for tips on how to make Winry feel good in bed. AHAHAHAHAH! So anyway after a while Ed figured out he didn't like girls after a lot of semi-emotionless love sessions and Winry figured out that she couldn't keep dating Ed because she really and truly did hate some of Ed's personality and it wasn't just some hidden love-hate thing for him so they broke up and that's how Ed found out he was gay!" Hughes said all in no more than one breath.

Ed was speechless. His jaw was fully open and his golden eyes wider than Al's in surprise. It took him five full minutes to realize Hughes had said he was little. And that he was blushing furiously like an idiot.

"WHO'RE YOU CALLING A FILE-DELIVERING MIDGET WHO CAN BARELY MAKE IT OUT OF THE OFFICE AT THE END OF THE DAY BECAUSE THE DOORKNOB IS TOO FAR AWAY FROM HIS HANDS?" Edward screeched.

Roy broke out in surprised laughter, "Hahahah! He's _gay?_ I would never have thought! Then again, the pipsqueak does do enough weird things anyway, so why not!"

Hughes frowned a bit, "Roy, that's a bit harsh."

Edward, in his umpteenth fit of rage, humphed and stormed away.

No one seemed to notice that Sarah was there until she spoke up, "So _that's_ why Ed denied my sex offer!"

**1****(look below for more vital information) In case you didn't know, Marie Curie discovered penicillin, which is an antibiotic based of off a mold (yes, I mean the mold you're thinking of) that fights bacteria (as antibiotics do). Also, she discovered the radioactive elements of polonium and radium.**

**EDIT:**

**According to Cap. Z, Marie Curie did not discover penicillin; it was Alexander Fleming. Thank you for the correction!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Hello! It's FMAFan here again. I promised you a chapter this week, so I will give you the chapter you deserve. Now, I don't want to waste your time like the last A/N, so I'll hurry on to the disclaimer!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist or anything having to do with it. The only thing I own is this story. To prove my point, I have (sadly) never been to Japan. Happy now? Okay!**

**Thanks to all my reviewers and people who have added this story onto their endless groups of favorite and alert lists. Those people are people I like! Well, now, bitching for things isn't exactly something I'm supposed to do, seeing as how I'm pressuring you. Or pissing you off! But I do what I do. :D I learned how from other authors, anyway. XD **

**And, it's review answer time!**

**To Cap. Z:**

**Ahhh! I'm sorry! I looked it up on Wikipedia and that's what I saw, but maybe I read it wrong. Who knows? Anyway, thank you for the correction. It's greatly appreciated!**

**Okay, I'm done with excuses. That A/N was rather long. So read! Read! Read!**

:~H.n.R~:

_Ed was speechless, his jaw and eyes wide open, his blush redder than his old coat. It took him forever to register that Hughes had called him little._

_Roy, on the other hand, broke out in surprised laughter, "Hahahah! He's _gay_? I would have never thought! Hm, but then again, the pipsqueak does do enough weird things anyway, so it should be expected-"_

"_Roy, that's a bit harsh," Hughes scolded his friend disappointedly with a frown, watching Edward storm away from the group with his intense blush._

"_So _that's _why he denied my sex offer!" Sarah squealed._

The ignored woman just stood there, waiting for someone to react to her comment, but when she realized that no one would she puffed her cheeks in annoyance and stormed away in the same fashion as Ed to go try and woo some of Roy's friends, who were, undoubtedly, older than her.

Roy looked at where Ed had gone-up the stairs, "So I guess you're expecting me to go talk to him now?"

Hughes looked at Roy over his glasses. Roy started to panic at this and hurried after Edward while trying to avoid Hughes' glare.

:~H.n.R~:

"Fullmetal?" Roy called as soon as he set foot on the second floor, "Fullmetal?"

He didn't hear any replies, so he started to glance inside some of his rooms, wondering where the blond had gone, yet not showing up with any good results. Coming back to the top of the stairs to rendezvous with himself, he put his finger on his chin and looked up-as if it would help-trying to think of a way to find him.

_I could actually give my rooms a thorough look_, Roy considered, _but I have a rather…big…house…hmmm, maybe I can think of where Fullmetal would go when he's angry or sad or whatever the hell he calls his emotions. _"*cough*Hormone-fueled.*cough" _Well, the balcony in the big guest room is a cliché place, but I might as well take a look._

And Roy found out he was right. He found the elder Elric sitting down on the edge of the balcony railing, hunched over and looking at the horizon, probably studying the stars as he brooded moodily. Roy smiled-at his success-and went to stand near the blond.

"Well, Fullmetal, never knew you had such a short patience," Roy smirked and put his hands in his pockets. Once again, the young man seemed to be in the same mood as the park and didn't answer him; he only shifted around uncomfortably to show that he didn't want the Flame around. Well, flames can't exactly get up and walk away on their own, can they? Roy wasn't going _anywhere_.

"Dammit, you have to answer me sometime, Ed," Roy tried to sound a little more irritated, "I'm not going to stand out here while you try to figure your life out in one night. You know you're going to go home after this, right? You can't stay at my house all night, and I'm sure as hell not going to drag you off the porch."

Roy could've sworn he saw a blush starting to dust Ed's cheeks again, but it quickly went away and was replaced with an annoyed scowl after he continued with, "Although it would suffice my pleasure to push you off. Quick, easy, and it'll shut you up."

"Go away, okay? Go be with your friends. Just because Hughes made you follow me up here doesn't mean you actually have to. Go get a drink from one of your stashes or something."

"What stashes? I'm not a druggie, as hard as it may seem to believe, I can live life without pretending that I'm happy. I've got brains, see? Maybe I could teach you, _Fullmetal Alchemist_."

Edward whipped around and snarled at him, "Please! You drink all the time!"

"I _drunk _all the time," Roy smirked, "There's a difference. I move on and learn from my mistakes."

At that moment, the younger man looked like he wanted to pounce on Roy and rip him to shreds simply by giving him that feral look in his eye. Sadly, Edward did not have magical powers beyond alchemy.

"Oh, and Edward?"

Ed flinched as Roy called him by his first name.

"Tell me the answer to my question from the park earlier," Roy requested, "It's been eating at me all day."

"Yeah right," Ed muttered, turning back around and clamping his cold palms against each other in a feeble attempt to warm them up.

"Come on, Ed," Roy sighed and threw his hands up, "If you tell me who it is, I'll leave you alone.

Roy watched the blond sit there for what seemed like an eternity, considering his options.

_If I tell him, he'll leave me alone_, Ed thought, _but then he'll know…_"Damn!"

The older man was taken aback a bit by the younger man's sudden outburst since the ex-alchemist hadn't done anything like that in years, or what seemed like it anyway. Once Ed made his final decision, he turned around to face Roy with a steady look on his face.

"We have a mission tomorrow, right?"

"Yes, I'm surprised you actually remembered something pertaining to work."

"Shut up! If you want to hear what I have to say then you'd do well to keep your fucking mouth shut!" Edward scowled and bared his teeth, trying to make an ugly, feral expression, then pushed himself off the ledge. Roy rushed over to the balcony edge like a cliché, lovesick romancer and watched as Ed landed on the soft grass easily and walked back inside, waving and saying hello to someone when he reentered the house.

Sigh.

**A/N: Sorry to cut it off so early but I really don't know how I could prolong this without adding meaningless things. Besides, I'm sure you all want to hear Ed's confession, seeing as how Chapter 5 is going to be what the summary's all about. ;) **

**Anyway, please R&R, and feel free to add this to your favorites/story alert lists! :D **


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Hello again, dear readers! I'm so glad I learned the secret to life! And what may that be, you ask, since I have no annoying OCs who will make an entrance in any A/N I post here? *shoves OCs into a corner* It is…I'm not telling you! Or all my readers will run away from me in a crazed frenzy. :) Hehehe.**

**Disclaimer: Fullmetal Alchemist does not belong to me. If it did I'd be rich, Japanese, have (absolute) shiny black hair, and have a history of working on a farm. And two children. All those things together guys, all those things. Nevertheless.**

_Finally, Edward decided on what he wanted his reply to Roy to be. He turned around on the balcony to face the older man, a steady and sure look on his face._

_The blonde said, "We have a mission tomorrow, right?"_

_Mustang's eyes showed shock in them for the umpteenth time that week-he was really becoming rather out of character with old age-and tried to straighten his expression, "Well, yes, I'm surprised you actually remembered something pertaining to work."_

"_Shut up!" Ed snarled back, "If you want to hear what I have to say, then you'd do well to keep your fucking mouth shut!" At that, the young man leapt off the balcony and landed in the sweet, dewy grass below. He turned around to enter Roy's house again through the back porch into the kitchen, the soft yellow light illuminated his figure. Roy had rushed to the edge and watched Ed fall with horror; he thought that the once-suicidal teen would have, well, not caught himself. He had reasons to believe that with the silly way Elric was acting lately, anyway…_

:~H.n.R.~:

It was the next morning, and thankfully no one other than Roy's team on this mission had been at Roy's dinner party the night before. His team always appeared lackadaisical to the rest of the military, although the produced some of the best results when they put their minds to it, so they weren't really ridiculed much. Incidentally, that was around the same time Ed entered the military and went under the Flame's command.

A heavy mist covered the bridge the thirty-or-so soldiers were situated on, waiting for the final member of their group to join them. The gray cobblestone was covered with moss between the cracks and slippery after the last night's rain, and the young men in the group actually had a bit of a hard time standing up as they shifted their feet uncomfortably for standing silently in one place for too long. Heck, the sky was almost as gray as their bored moods.

Finally, one young soldier gained enough courage to speak up, "Permission to speak, Colonel Mustang, sir!"

Roy perked his ears and granted the young man permission. The soldier cleared his throat and asked, "When and who is our finally member?"

A few others, included Roy, chuckled at the kid's impatience, "He'll be here soon enough, soldier. Calm down."

The blue-clad man shuffled his feet embarrassedly and went back to his stoic stance.

After about twenty more minutes of waiting, the group of soldiers heard faint, rhythmic noises from one side of the bridge, the side they were facing, needless to say. The noise slowly grew louder, and louder, and _louder_, until they could see a blue and yellow figure to accompany the sound. When the figure was not more than five meters away, Mustang and most of the others could recognize Edward rushing towards them. The blonde stopped in front of them, putting his hands on his knees and panting, gasping for breath.

"You're late," Mustang stated. The other soldiers chuckled, some nervously at fear of being quieted. Gladly, they weren't.

"Yessir, I know that," Edward retaliated, then snapped to stand at attention, "Wait, late, sir? You told me to be here but not a few minutes ago."

"Either way, you're late," Roy smirked down at Edward, "And you should always be an hour early in the military. Now that you're ignorant self didn't realize this from almost a decade of service you have cost us over an hour of good time."

Ed grimaced at his once-was commanding officer to show him he didn't really care, then for show, saluted the raven-haired man and said, "Excuse me sir; it won't happen again sir."

"Make sure of that," Roy narrowed his eyes in a warning and turned around to face his men to debrief them on the mission ahead. The blonde behind him from Intelligence only heard words like "trouble," "East," and "Lucania*," but he was really not paying any attention to what Roy was saying. He was more nervous about the fact that sometime today he'd have to tell Roy his secret. Because he promised…and Elrics never break promises.

Coming to the fact that if he got it over sooner he'd get the ordeal over with sooner in the end, he waited until Mustang was done dismissing his soldiers to retrieve their supplies and talk amongst themselves to tap him on the shoulder.

Mustang turned around to face the blonde yet again, "Yes?"

"Remember that promise I made last night…?"

This caught Breda's attention but Havoc, wiser than Breda about being nosy from experience, pulled his head back down.

"Yes, I do, actually," Mustang half-smiled, half-smirked, "Ready to confess?"

"Ummm, this is actually pretty hard for me to say…" Ed shuffled his feet, "But I have to tell you, because I promised…"

Edward sighed, "I'll get straight to the point…I think I've fallen for you." As soon as he confessed, Edward looked at anywhere but Roy, a light blush on his cheeks that he could feel but was sure even Roy couldn't see. A sick, twisted feeling filled his gut, making him have a stomachache and making him also want to go to the bathroom. That wouldn't suffice, though, because Roy could follow him in there…the blush darkened and Ed was damn sure his elder could see it.

He glanced at Roy and he felt a pang in his heart from the older soldier's immense frown on his face. That couldn't be good.

"Are you kidding me? I expected something better of you," Roy put a hand to his forehead and looked off, "Like you transmuted gold again to trick conspirators or something. But this? Come _on_, Edward! You really expect me to have mutual feelings for you? Huh? Is that what it is?"

"W-well, no, but," Ed stuttered, "I just thought you should know if we were to, y'know, continue knowing each other…I mean, you call me into your office everyday…"

"Because I miss the enjoyment of teasing you-_verbally,_ I might add!-and seeing you angry!" Roy rolled his eyes, "I'm not some little school boy who pushes down little girls because he can't man up to his own feelings! I guess I raised my expectations too high for you…"

_But I was born gay! I can't control this… _"Please, just, if you don't want me here I'll leave…" Ed hid his face behind his bangs.

"Whatever, Ed. Just don't do this again. Do whatever the hell you want," Roy spat, turning away to almost run towards the other soldiers. A homophobe.

Edward watched his ex-superior trot away from him, sadness filling his heart and threatening to implode him.

_A homophobe._

***Not sure if I made this city up or not but I just picked a random name that came to my head…at first I'd use Aquroya from the first FMA anime, but I really don't want to deal with that story arc. So Luciana it is. Also, it's pronounced, Lu-shee-a-nah. :P**

**A/N: Anyway I'm sure you'll agree that that ending was just an excuse of how I can't explain how Ed's feeling. :I Anyway I am a horrible person for other reasons besides that so feel free to punch my arm. As hard as you can. I know you guys spend all day on the computer but you aren't wimps. COME AT ME BRO**

**Anyway I'll most definitely be doing other Roy/Ed/Ed/Roy fics (maybe I should just type EdRoyEd :P Or…RoyEdRoy. That sounds better. :D Whatever.) so watch out for those! Here, I'll give you two choices of which one you want to see written first. **

**Roy and Ed are already in a relationship. Ed works at a middle school in Central/East City (location to be determined…) as the alchemy teacher and the play director, and Roy works nearby, where he's been working his whole life, only now the change is that he is now Furher. And these two men have no intention of keeping their relationship a secret…especially from Ed's drama students. (Probably no lemons since I want there to be a bit of an air of fluffiness/innocence in this…it'll have a one-shot feel but be a chaptered fic, most likely. Like Lucky*Star or something.)**

**Ed and Roy have been close friends for a while now, and Ed is now a grown man like Roy. (Roy will probably be a little younger. I don't want any "old" main characters.) On one friend-date, sparks and feelings fly…**

**Well, see you next time! And thank you for reading! And I love reviews. Hint.**

**Hint.**

**Honk honk! :D**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: After a long and slightly eventful second Eid Break, I'm back to write the sixth chapter! Actually, I've been considering naming the chapters for a long time. Tell me what you think!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fullmetal Alchemist. Why would Hiromu Arakawa write a ****fanfiction**** of her own work? If she did (or gave someone the permission to), it would be a light novel, of course.**

**Also, I plan on using as much of the metric system I can muster, because really, for two reasons: one, FMA is originally Japanese. And two, I live in the Middle East (as an ex-pat guys, calm your tits) so they teach us the metric system here anyway. Although they expect us to know both (standard and metric).**

**And so, with my newly fixed braces, toothache-causing spacer, and thoughts of gummy worms, here is the sixth chapter! (Let's try to make it a bit longer this time…)**

_Ed hid his face behind his bangs in pure shame and regret. "Please, just, if you don't want me here I'll leave…" _

_Roy scoffed, "Whatever, Ed. Just don't do this again. Do what the hell you want." The superior officer spun on his heel and hurried away from his ex-subordinate. Edward watched him as he faded into the mist surrounding them, trying to run away inconspicuously from the short blonde towards his teammates. _

A homophobe, _Ed thought sullenly, _Dammit.

:~H.n.R.~:

Ten of the officers on the mission sat together in one of the trucks heading towards Lucania in the East. They all sat there somewhat quietly, a few of the soldiers chatting together under their breaths about unimportant matters or their troubled thoughts about the day ahead. All but one, who sat there hunched over with his face hidden behind thick, golden bangs and once-sparkling eyes now directed towards the dusty, wooden floor. His hands brushed against each other and his elbows rested on his knees, so as to look as if he were just in deep thought. But almost all of the officers could sense the tension hanging in the air between this young man and the black haired one sitting across the truck from him.

Another young man, this one with faint brown hair and bright blue eyes, tried to get the withered flower of a blonde to speak up, "Hey, Blondie!"

Ed looked up slightly at him, knowing he meant no harm by the comment. He was too shameful at the moment to retaliate, anyway. "Yes?"

"What's your name? Where're you from?"

"Ed," he paused, "Edward Elric. Resembool."

"Isn't that in the East? Like, way south of Lucania?"

"Yeah." Edward didn't really know where this kid was going with the conversation. He looked to be about his age-couldn't tell if he was younger or older-but at least he gave him credit for being brave enough to try to speak to him right now. Or just stupid enough. Ed smiled slightly-this reminded him of his old self, so he told the idea of snarling at the other soldier to go fuck with some other sorry sap's mind.

"Whoa! So, you'll, like, know the area? Wait, that's rude of me. What's even ruder? I haven't introduced myself!" The kid puffed out his chest proudly, "I'm Nicholas Tearson! Nice to meet you!"

Edward looked at the friendly hand Nicholas provided for a while, and then shook it, "Okay if I call you Nick?"

"Yeah, sure!" the kid beamed in success. He had gotten the attention of this blond guy! And he thought that the rumors were true for a moment there. "Weren't you an alchemist at some point in time?"

"Oh?" Ed looked mildly surprised at this, "Yes, I was. What of it?"

"I just heard these rumors," Nicholas shrugged, "Nothing special. But they aren't really that true anymore, as my first impression of you tells me."

Edward blushed a bit, "Whatever."

"Anyway, I hope we're on the same team," Nick flashed some teeth in his almost-permanent smile, "It'll be a pleasure working with you."

"I return that," Ed chuckled lightly and sat back in his seat, feeling better about the day ahead already. _Thanks, kid, _he thought.

:~H.n.R.~:

For the rest of the ride to Lucania, Roy's mood seemed to get sourer and sourer while Ed's seemed to shine brighter and brighter from his new encounter. The blonde even suspected for a moment that Roy was _jealous_ of his new ability to pick up his mood and reply to someone so maturely now after just being shot down by who Roy considered himself to be-his idol. Ed felt like smirking. A lot.

The trucks stopped and all of the soldiers filed out. The group stopped in front of Roy just meters from the town for a quick meeting and a few reminders (and fair warnings). Then, they were split into groups by Roy numbering them off, because he really wasn't in the mood to watch soldiers scramble around and find their friends or tell all these people who were standing together to be in a group and realize later he had a group full of slow-thinking, low-ranked soldiers.

Ed didn't really pay attention to Roy, but what caught his attention was Nick rushing up to him. He had a wide grin on his face and his eyes continued to sparkle, "Hey, are you a number two? I think you were a number two! Yeah, you were a number two!" He turned to another soldier and asked, "Is he a number two?"

The soldier nodded quietly and walked over to his teammates. Nick jumped up and down with glee, "We're in the same group!"

Edward smirked; Roy must've heard their conversation on the truck and really regretted that coincidences existed when Nicholas and Edward ended up in the same group, whereas Roy himself was only one number away from being in their group as well and being able to keep a close eye on them. Ed sighed-that could have caused some awkwardness in their quarters…

Ed looked around him as five more soldiers joined their midst. Three men and two women, who which were shorter and slimmer than the men. Ed chuckled sourly at the stereotype and realized they were all looking at him for direction.

"Am I the highest-ranking person here?" Edward questioned hesitantly.

All six nodded, Nick still wearing a grin.

"Oh gosh," Ed rubbed the back of his head and looked away for a moment, muttered "Bastard" and turned back to them, "Okay, well, anyone want to tell me they listened to the Colonel's debriefing?"

Most of them nodded, two of the men looking slightly sheepish.

"Well, then, someone tell me what's going on," Ed paused, and then added, "Prove it to me."

One of the women, who looked like the female version of Nick with darker eyes and hair and more flushed skin, stepped forward, "Major, sir, I know. Permission to relay information?"

Ed raked his fingers through his hair, front to back, and sighed. Did this woman think she was Riza Hawkeye? "Don't be so uptight."

"Sir!" the woman clicked her heels together and saluted him, "We have arrived at Lucania because there were numerous reports of human transmutation devices being made."

_Human transmutation devices? What?_

"They seem to be a sort of machine, but no one dares to tell us what it looks like. We're guessing it's because they were bribed not to tell any more than that. This leads us to believe that they wanted us to come here," the woman stared straight ahead as she lowered her arm back to her side, not skipping a beat, "And that's what we have done. Now, we have to find and capture the people responsible. At the least, do as much as we can with the least injuries."

"Well I'm assuming the Colonel wants us to split up, so I guess we'll be staying in a three-star hotel." When a couple of the male soldiers gaped at Ed with horror, he rolled his eyes, "Don't worry about it. Calm _down_ and follow _me_!"

:~H.n.R.~:

The Nick-clone found the three-star hotel they were staying in now, even though Ed was the one who found their way into town. It was a rather humble hotel as its ironic name The Waterfall implies. Actually, Ed just thought that because he had the opinion that only fancy restaurants have fancy names.* After a bit of negotiating about getting an extra bed in one of the rooms for the fifth male soldier with Nick-clone stepping in and intimidating the receptionist, they went up to their rooms (all next to each other) that were "strategically" placed on the third floor. Really, Edward wanted to be placed on the first floor only because it would be easier to get out, but the hotel had five or six floors and to be in the middle placed them in the middle of everything, which would help save lives if needed. Probably.

Edward and Nicholas shared a room, the other three male soldiers shared a room in the middle, and the two female soldiers shared the third room on the end of the group's rooms.

"Alright guys. I want you to settle in for ten minutes then group for a N.B.A. meeting," Edward ordered them.

"N.B.A., sir?" Nick smiled.

"No Bastards Allowed!" Ed declared, eyes sparkling with amusement, "If a bastard comes to the door go tell him to fuck himself!"

"And what would these bastards look like, sir?" Nicholas looked like a child in a candy shop.

"Anyone I don't like!" Ed puffed his cheeks and chest out, "And the first one on the list is that damn Colonel. Alright! Go, go, go!"

It wasn't more than five minutes until everyone else knocked on Ed and Nick's door, waiting to be let in. Ed was the one who opened the door, letting them all in before closing the door behind them. Walking after his group with his hands in blue pockets, he put on his best Roy-like, stone-like face and looked at his group, all sitting on the two beds and one in a chair.

"So we're gonna ask around today," Ed started, not bothering with introductions, "And we're gonna make friends with the citizens! No fake stuff! Act like yourself. We're not here to trick any citizens here into believing us like we're military dogs. We're going to do this the Fullmetal way."

"So just talk to people and just inquire about what we're here for?" one soldier asked timidly.

"I guess so," Ed bit on the side of his cheek, "I mean, don't push it in their faces, like 'tell me about the transmutation devices!' I just want to let the citizens know we're not going to be dogs of the military like everyone believes we are. But if someone asks, just say the least you can. Here's an example. Nicholas!"

"Sir, yes, sir!" Nick stood up and saluted.

"Does that grin ever come off your face? You know what, nevermind," Ed shook his head disbelievingly, "Anyway, I'm an old, cranky guy who's demanding why you're here."

Nicholas nodded, preparing himself.

"Why're you here?" Ed did an about-face and snarled at his subordinate, "You better not be comin' into meh town with some business I don't approve! Tell me now or I'll blow yer head inta little bits and chup yer menhood off!"

Nicholas was trying really hard not to giggle as he responded, "I apologize for intruding, mister! I'm only here on orders of my superior! We're here to investigate some weird goings-on so we can protect the innocent."

"Why're you wantin' to do that?" Ed screamed, "Eh!"

"Because the military is here to protect people," Nick gave a shy smile and shrugged innocently, "At least, that's what I signed up for."

Edward glared at him for what seemed like eternity, then straightened up and smiled, "Good job, Nicholas! I expect no less of you."

"Awww, d'awrn," Nick grinned stupidly.

***First, I got that (somehow) from the fourth opening of Fullmetal Alchemist, and second, that is actually my opinion.**

**A/N: I really watched my word limit on this. Even though the A/Ns are long, I still tried to reach 2,000 words like the first chapter…**

**Also, I feel like bothering you guys with a playlist. Like, the songs I listen to while I write this? If you don't like it just tell me (even though I might continue every now and then with a playlist whether you tell me you like it or not). You can find most, if not all, of these songs on YouTube. Anyway.**

**(song – artist – album)**

**The Disappearance of Hatsune Miku – Hatsune Miku **

**Double Rainbow – Songify This **

**I Will – Sowelu**

**Leia – Nico Nico Douga Chorus**

**World is Mine – Hatsune Miku**

**Alice Margatroid's Theme (The Doll Maker of Bucuresti (I don't think I spelled that correctly)) – Team Shanghai Alice/ZUN **

**Teenagers – My Chemical Romance – The Black Parade**

**So, I'll see you in Chapter Seven!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Because of demand I am going to (**_**try to) **_**give you guys this chapter (I was planning to work on it later this week but I…I'd like to die of something more heroic than death by fanfiction peers. :3 You guys are the best, I swear.)**

**So, I'm not doing disclaimers anymore, hence the name FANfiction, so I guess I'll do warnings if I feel up to it? But really there's no need. It's not like there's any self-mutilation or anything like that. (Although, uh, *nosebleed* Roy should have a warning label *swoon*)**

**Also, can you guys please go back to chapter 5 and look at the A/N at the bottom? I listed some story ideas there and I'd like for you guys to pick one of them for me to write after I'm close to the end of this story or finished with it. Yeah, I really like this story, too, but it has to end so I can write MOAR.**

**Also, I'm just wondering-any Homestuck fans out there?**

"_Because the military is here to protect people," the soldier named Nick smiled hesitantly and shrugged, "At least, that's what I signed up for."_

_Edward Elric, Nick's superior, was currently pretending to be an angry old man with his rage stimulated by Nick's appearance. The faus pax elder glared at the young brunette for a few long moments, then stood up straight and smiled, the façade over._

"_Good job, Nicholas!" Ed beamed proudly at his subordinate's cooperation, "I expect no less of you."_

"_Awww," Nick mocked a disappointed whine, "Darn."_

:~H.n.R.~:

Nick looked around town for suitable prey. He wanted to make sure his first impression was not only perfect, but was also towards the perfect person. Was he overthinking this? What the fuck are you talking about, Nick knows how to do his fucking shit job!

_Fucking shit job, fucking shit job_, Nick sang to himself, "Fucking shit job, FUCKING SHIT JOB-"

"SHUT THE HELL UP!"

_WHAM!_

:~H.n.R.~:

The light-haired brunette soldier scowled down at Nick, hands on her hips and eyebrows askew. Closing her lips over her sharp-toothed growl, she held out a hand to help the fallen soldier up.

"What hit my head?" Nick whined, rubbing his head repeatedly and his face contorted in pain.

"A piggyback."

"A piggy-_what?_" Nick raised an eyebrow up at her skeptically, "Don't you mean a 'piggybank'?"

"No, a piggyback," the female soldier replied, holding up a large, heavy, bloody slab of pink skin over a dark slab of muscles, "The back of a pig. I roll it up like this and I thro-"

"Okay, okay, put that thing away!" Nick held his nose and backed up dramatically. He held out his other hand and waved it at her for emphasis. The female soldier only shrugged, rolled up the pig skin, and put it in a rather large holster that Nick only noticed now.

"So why'd you throw that…thing at me?"

"You were messing around and using inappropriate language," the female soldier answered.

"Oh," Nick rubbed his head nervously, "What's your name?"

"Why are you asking me?" the female soldier asked.

"I'm just curious!" he smiled.

"Well, it serves no justice, so I don't have to answer," the female soldier concluded.

Nick frowned at her. She was a tough nut to crack. It'd take a rather big…and muscular…and handsome…_nutcracker_ to crack her! Nick smirked to himself and his companion raised one eyebrow in question.

"Anyway," Nick changed the subject, "Let's go do what Master ordered."

"Sure," the female soldier agreed.

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward took his time strolling about town, trying to look as nonchalant as possible. That was kind of hard when you were, well, dressed in the brightest blue of an ass cape there ever was.

To help his case, he put his hands in his pockets and leaned back slightly, and studied the clouds on the horizon. They were fluffy, white, and looked like marshmellows. Speaking of marshmellows, he hadn't had any in quite a long time. At least he had the abdominal muscles to prove it!

Every so often he saw a glimpse of one of the soldiers sent to watch over Luciana on another street through an alleyway, but other than that he seemed to be the only one on the street. There was probably nothing odd about that, but Ed was naturally skeptical from his years on the road with homunculi, chimera, and pissy military officers at every turn.

Ed thought it'd be a good time to pick out someone to talk to – since no one seemed to have the courage to talk to him – and walked up to a random young man (shorter than he, Ed proudly added.) The man had short, dark brown hair. He wore a plaid-and-white, out of place hoodie (probably borrowed as it was too big for him) over a burgundy shirt with a white logo and stitching. He also wore a pair of jeans with black-and-white sneakers.

The young man looked up at Ed with a curious face, "Uh?"

Ed gazed down at the teenager and smiled approvingly, "Hello. I'm guessing you're wondering what a military man like me is doing in a town like yours."

"Oh, I know what you're doing!" the teen said, almost too enthusiastically, "You're here to investigate all the weird stuff happening."

"That _is_ correct," Ed smirked, "But I don't really have anything to do right now. Would you mind giving me a tour? I've been here before in the past, but it was years ago." Day-umn, he was acting like a pedophile.

"Years ago…?" the young boy thought for a moment, then grinned and put a knowing finger up, "You're the Fullmetal Alchemist, aren't you?"

"Was."

"Was what?"

"I _was_ the Fullmetal Alchemist," Ed corrected again, "Right now I work for Intelligence."

"Oh."

"But, I AM Edward Elric," Ed held out an open hand, "Major Elric, if you will. You can call me Ed if you want to; I'd rather you call me by that name." Pedoooooooo.

The man scrutinized the welcoming hand for a few moments, then shook it with a grin resembling Nick's, "I'm Nathan Filipo.* But most grown-ups call me Mr. Phillips."

"Why don't I just call you Nate?" Ed reasoned, then scowled at himself. He kept giving people nicknames! First Al, then Colonel BASTARD, then Nick, and now Nate! How infuriatingly impossible he was!

"Uh, yeah," Nate scratched his head in confusion, mostly because this grown-up refused to call him by his last name.

Ed blushed in embarrassment because he thought Nate was angry at him for using a nickname for him when he told him what he was used to being called. Dammit, dammit, dammit!

:~H.n.R.~:

"I fully believe this started all because of you!"

"No, I'd like to put the blame on you."

"But I'm not the one who got me angry!"

"That doesn't even make any sense, and yes you did."

Nick combed his fingers through his hair tiredly and groaned. How could an old man throw them out of his house after he had just practiced with Ed? I mean, he _did_ bust in there without warning and almost gave the elder a heart attack, and _yes_, he was shouting, which would practically make his new partner deaf, nevermind the old man. That probably explained it. But still! He didn't have to be reprimanded so harshly for it!

When Nicholas reiterated his thoughts allowed, his female partner scowled at him disapprovingly, "What did you think you signed up for, the kiddy parade? This is the military! Get used to harsh treatment!"

Nick was still scowling when he noticed a familiar person walk by in his peripheral vision.

:~H.n.R.~:

Roy Mustang, exhausted from trying to deal with his subordinates who tried to challenge every word he said. Apparently they thought that arguing against everything their superiors said would get them a promotion. He'd make sure they were put in their place before they returned to Central.

Walking around town with his hands in his pockets, he pulled out his silver State Alchemist watch and looked at the time. 4:43 PM. Not too late, but Roy wondered in a small corner of his mind how the time had flown by so quickly.

Somewhere in his thoughts, he decided to think about Ed's proposition. That brat! How could he? That homosexual shrimp knew perfectly well that he was straight through and through, so why the hell did he pull his confession out of nowhere and drop yet another set of his problems on him? He already had enough on his shoulders from the Elrics: trying to hide their secret from almost a decade ago from the higher-ups and anyone who will tell, then Ed's habit of destroying things whenever he was pulled into a duel that would decide the end of his mission, and now the kid he called into his office every day for business reasons was hot for him! Nevermind Edward being naturally energetic and headstrong, he was a hormonal teenager, probably distraught from his current relationship status with Roy.

Why did he _really_ call the teen into his office almost every day? Well, Roy liked to think it was for a "number of reasons," since the phrase sounded cool and nonchalant, but really seeing the male blonde cheered up his day. Riza nor Jean could compare to how Ed just…radiated the air wherever he walked. He was like a walking flame, sucking up all the energy and inserting it into the bodies of people he knew and cared for. Roy knew he was one of the people who could feel this flame the strongest, and sometimes Roy was jealous of how Ed could give off this "light" and "flame" when he himself was Roy Mustang, the Flame Alchemist. That was his job! Then again, at other times Roy felt immensely proud for Ed learning the "way of things," in a sense.

But now Roy was repulsed. He couldn't possibly return Ed's feelings like this! And why did Ed just randomly tell him this after being _late_?

Wait a minute. Roy, through his haze of anger and disgust, remember his and Edward's deal. Ed was sitting on his balcony alone during his dinner party just a couple of night ago, and his face showed distress and worry about something Roy hadn't known about then. Roy, being the ass that he was, made Ed promise to tell him what was bothering him, and to get Mustang off his shoulders, Edward scowled at him and told him to piss off until the next morning unless he didn't want to find out. And then he jumped off the balcony and re-entered Roy's house.

Roy couldn't decide whether this benefited him or not. On one hand, he now could not trust one of his most-previously-trusted subordinates, because now he'd be basing all his actions off of how he felt for Roy, not on logic and what needed to get done. Then again, if Roy hadn't interfered in all this, maybe Ed would have ended up confessing another day in a way that would make Roy even more uncomfortable. Like marching up to his desk during his report, grabbing him by his lapels, and smashing his young and chapped lips onto Roy's experienced and smoother ones. Agh! Don't think those thoughts! You don't know what Ed's lips feel like!

Yes he did, though, yes he did. That time when he had to give the young blonde mouth-to-mouth to save him when his automail had been connected to his nerves incorrectly and messed with his nervous system. And this somehow caused Ed not to breathe and collapse in the Flame's private office with everyone else at lunch break on the other side of the grounds? Yeah. And when Ed woke back up, instead of having his limp lips connected to Roy's through mouth-to-mouth, the teenager found himself pursing his lips so that Roy's face would stay where it had been. Maybe that's where Ed's infatuation had started…

But he didn't feel not one sliver of affection for the intelligent ex-alchemist! Not one morsel of love! He couldn't anymore now that he knew Ed felt in such a way that if he agreed to be with the teen he'd be pile-driven into his bed with a 12-inch-diameter asshole after just a month of this…whatever it was!

He meant…he was pretty sure he was _not_ going to get off on that thought. Or else he'd have some serious self-mutilation to do.

***I got this guy from an actually person who's in the musical I'm in. He's…he's handsome. o/o Anyway, I don't want to use his name for safety purposes solely, so I'm changing it up.**

**A/N: I listened to Michael Jackson songs, I guess (:I If you want to know, don't ask me. It's all Mom from here.) My near-frozen fingers aren't in the mood to type songs down…nah, nevermind, they are. Procrastination~ (There's more of the A/N below the playlist so just skip the playlist if you want.)**

_**Terrible Things – April Smith and the Great Picture Show – Songs for a Sinking Ship**_

_**The Time (Dirty Bit) – The Black Eyed Peas – The Beginning (Deluxe Version)**_

_**Savior of the Waking World – Toby "Radiation" Fox – Homestuck Vol. 5**_

_**Rolling Girl – Hatsune Miku **_

_**Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better – John Barrowman and Ruthie Hensaw **_

_**Double Lariat – Megurine Luka**_

_**All the Livelong Day - Company (from "Working", the musical)**_

_**Nyan Cat (original)**_

_**Nobody Tells Me How – Bobo Lewis (from "Working", the musical)**_

_**Millwork – Robin Lamont (from "Working", the musical)**_

_**You Make Me Feel…. – Cobra Starship ft. Sabi**_

_**Double Rainbow – Songify This**_

_**Cliffhanger-Snowmobile Escape – Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 OST**_

_**Just a Housewife – Susan Bigelow & Women (from "Working", the Musical)**_

_**12 Trolls of Christmas – Kylee Henke – Kylee Henke's Album**_

**Also, I'd like if you guys see any mistakes, please tell me! I do have spell check on word and everything like that, but I don't beta, first of all (always wondering what the fuckin' hell beta was) and secondly, um, well, maybe I just don't notice things if I'm in a stupor or something. Or about to die from evil, deadly monsters. Either. **

**Yup.**

**Yeah.**

**So.**

**Anyways…**

**I just want to say I spell "marshmellows" like "marshmellows." You know, the white, fluffy things that no one could possibly live without and smell so sugary and good that if you inhale one you're definitely going to devour all the rest? Yeah, those candies that-**

**Random person: GET TO THE POINT ALREADY.**

**Okay, okay! I'm just saying don't correct that. If I put a space in there, THAT'S a mistake. :3**

**Also, until mid-December, don't expect frequent, once-or-twice-a-week updates because I'm in a play and it's less than a week until the play! Gosh! Well, wish me luck 'cause I'm a demanding bitch. Heheheh.**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: So.**

**It's been a while.**

**Anyway I am being pile-driven into the ground by writer's block, so let's just see how this chapter goes.**

**And I have no forgotten my promise about that song-chapter! It will come up! Soon…**

**Disclaimer: If I own Fullmetal Alchemist then Hiromu Arakawa likes RoyEd.**

**Warning: Swearing I guess?**

You don't know what Ed's lips feel like!

_Yes he did, though. There was that one time where he had to give Edward mouth-to-mouth because his lungs failed. Something about how his incorrectly-inserted auto-mail messed with the nerves connected to his respiratory system. And the little fucker just had to collapse in his office when everyone was on lunch break! What was he supposed to do, let him die? Roy was certainly trying to avoid the ex-alchemist now, but that didn't mean he hated the blonde back then. _

Roy, _Mustang growled at himself_, if you get off on that memory I will cut you.

:~H.n.R.~:

Back then…back then he wanted to become best friends with Edward.

When Mustang first met Edward at the train station, he felt that the little brat would be a thorn in his side. He was screaming at him and already he was showing skills that Roy's jealousy would not stand for. His negative feelings rose and peaked when he smirked at the little kid, watching his face contort with confusion at the fact that Roy purposefully put him on that earlier train. Edward was a fighter, yes, but that did not mean he liked to fight. He simply knew how, and knew very well.

And then as the blonde started to frequent his office less and less, Roy found himself almost missing the kid's presence. How can you not? It is like living in the desert with the sun shining your days for half your life, then all of a sudden the sun disappears. Yes, it made the desert hot and uncomfortable, but you don't know what you wouldn't give to have it back.

The sun…why did Roy always associate Ed with light?

Well, it was obvious. First, his bright eyes and hair that is almost unnatural. Roy would wonder more often where he got his looks from if not for the boy's secrecy about his father. Second, for his behavior. Almost everything about it could be said about light as well. He was predictable in his reactions, especially when he was messed around with and was always loud about his opinions. Third, people are always attracted to him, whether it is in that needy way that says "it's-too-quiet-in-the-room-without-you-so-stay-fuckass" or that actually-attracted kind of way.

And then as the more recent of Ed's teenage years happened, Roy found himself starting to try to attract Edward in the same, needy way. He wanted Edward to miss him as a friend and frequent his office even more, what with the entire military ruckus going on. It was like when Ed entered the room, even with all the trouble that followed him, he washed all his and his subordinates' troubles away. He could relax and have fun teasing the blonde teen without worrying about his job, trying to become Furher, trying so hard to steal one of Havoc's girlfriends-because damn, that guy gets the most loyal of girls somehow.

And now, when Edward transferred to Intelligence, he thought that he'd call Ed in every day so he could get his former fix, and the higher-ups always ignored it because they thought that Roy just had some kink for Intelligence guys he knows, like Hughes. Which wasn't true, of course, all of his friends just happened to be more devious and crafty than he, which was good if you wanted to climb to the top of Intelligence. And now what with Ed's incident during lunch break and him being called in to his office, he assumed he could start liking his former superior officer! That…

That…

The more Roy thought about it, the less improbable it seemed.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Hey Alphonse, what's up?"

"_Oh, hey brother. How is your mission going so far?_"

"It's going fine! There's no need to worry about me, and you know that."

"_Hehehe, what about your _other _mission?_"

"What _other _mission?"

"_Your mission to ride a Mustang._"

"You're a douche bag when you want to be."

"_Seriously!_"

"Okay, okay, I told him! Happy now?"

"_Nope._"

"What do you want?"

"_The hot, sweaty details._"

"ALPHONSE!"

"_Every single second of it._"

"Alphonse, stop, I need to tell you what actually happened."

Nick looked up from his book when he saw Edward glaring at him, the evening sky shadows making the blonde's golden eyes almost glow in the darkness. Nick sputtered and hurried out of the room.

"_I'm _waiting_._"

"Okay, so I told him…"

"_Yes…_"

"And he said…"

"_Edward, stop being dramatic and get on with it._"

"He said he expected better of me, and that his expectations were raised too high for me. He said the only reason he wanted to see me every day is so he could get a rise out of me from his teasing. He said that…that he wasn't some school boy who hides his feelings by acting angry towards others."

"_He said all that? Really?_"

"Y-yeah…"

"_That son of a bitch!_"

"Whoa, Al! Calm down, it's not that big of a deal-"

"_Like hell it's not! I don't want that hormonal, angsty man with a god complex to think he can hold himself over your head, literally or not!_"

"ALPHONSE!"

"_I'm being serious here! He shouldn't treat you like that! You should tell him that he should apologize or you're quiting the mission and filing for, I don't know, fraternization._"

"But I WANT to fraternize with him!"

"…_Look. I don't want you to put Mr. Mustang on a pedestal because you have feelings for him. If you really want to be with someone, you want someone who will treat you with respect…and someone who you will respect back. Neither of you are the other's lapdog, and neither are the other's master. You're on equal ground. That's what a couple is._"

"I thought you said you wouldn't give me any relationship advice."

"_That was when I thought you could handle yourself and that he would actually like you back. I had some sick fantasy where the rumors about his…flamboyancy with woman were just rumors sprouted from Havoc. I guess not._"

"Maybe they are! Just because he doesn't like me doesn't me he likes whores, either!"

"_By the sound of it, he's a homophobe, and you know that, too._"

"…"

"_I was right, wasn't I?...Brother._"

"Yeah, Al?"

"_You know you can talk to me anytime. Do whatever pleases you. I've realized it's your life, and my life, and we're not responsible for the other. But we'll always be there for the other to talk to. You know that, right?_"

"Yeah, Al, I'm not a dumbshit!"

"_Stop fake crying to earn sympathy, I know you well enough that you don't cry over any little thing._"

"Then I can fake cry if I want to, if you know it's fake! Stop sighing Al!"

"_Hehehhe. Well, I'll call back soon. In one or two days sounds good-I wouldn't want to keep you from your work._"

"Ha, I wish you would. Thanks Al, see you soon."

"_Yup._"

**A/N: So after thinking about this while procrastinating, I realized that I could fit a request someone made for this fanfiction into this chapter. Hence the Ed and Al brofest. I hope you liked it!**

**Also, since I procrastinated so much and had so many art requests to complete, I just decided to upload this on Christmas. Even though I don't officially celebrate it, I am still aware that others do and decided that it'd be troll-ish of me to upload this as soon as I finished it. Hehehe.**

**Also my dad gave me a watch because he went to Thailand and bought bucketloads of stuff. Like, so much. Anyway.**

**Playlist**

_**O-Life Japan - ~Nuclear Fusion~**_


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: So I think I will give you guys something on New Years?**

**Yup.**

**No wasting of times, let's get this party started.**

**Warning: Sexual themes (yes, I said that, you can probably guess how I'm going to start this chapter, huh), excessive swearing, PWNAGE (no im joking)**

**Also, I can't help it with my Homestuck crossovers :O They're probably unnoticeable, so it doesn't really matter, anyway…**

:~H.n.R.~:

"_So what do you want, Colonel Bastard?" Edward's body took him forward, storming towards Mustang's desk. Why was he in his old clothes? Why was he so short? Good Gate, people were right about that._

"_I want to know when you're going to come over tonight."_

"_Is that all?" Ed could feel his old body smirking, and when he concentrated, he could feel the cold metal of his arm still attached to his shoulder. What the hell was going on? Whenever something like this happens he could never figure out what was going on until it ended, so he decided to just go with the flow of what his body was going to do._

"_Why _else_ would I call you into my office?"_

"_Reasons that would excuse me from whatever you've planned for tonight, of course," a sultry smile crossed Ed's body's lips._

_Roy smirked as well, and then looked back down at his paperwork, deciding to start on his work again, "So when?"_

"_Nine."_

"_Alright, I'll see you later then."_

"_With confident remarks like that, I'll have to punish you." Ed smirked and walked out of Roy's office, slamming the door behind him and putting on an angry face so none of his subordinates would suspect anything._

_:~.R.n.H~:_

_Ed felt himself being thrown onto something slightly hard, but still cushiony. Ever since he started walking out of his apartment at this late hour, his body's mind-and, consequently, his own conscience-became foggy and clouded and couldn't really think straight. He didn't really get what was going on, and he felt like he had the memory span of a goldfish. He could see Roy falling on top of him and pinning him down, a genuine grin on his face…wait, why was he here again?_

_Ed tried to think back to his barging in at the office, and remembered the dialogue, the conversation. From that he deduced that he and Roy had been having affairs under the military's nose for a while now, and not just any affair…_

HOT KINKY SMEX AFFAIRS.

_Okay, maybe they weren't kinky, and Roy wouldn't having sex with a minor…probably. He needed to focus on getting out of here, anyway. _

_Wait, getting _out_? Wasn't this what he'd been waiting for? For the past year he had craved that Roy would be licking his neck like that-oh, _GATE_-and now the Colonel was finally doing just that…but Ed had a feeling that he didn't want this…he didn't feel like he was being teased by a lover in a mutual relationship, he almost felt like he was being raped. Willingly._

_Ed's conscience panicked at this thought and all of a sudden, it was like a fourth wall broke and Ed pushed Roy off of him. He was so forceful the surprisingly muscular, heavy-set man fell back and was sitting up straight with a bewildered look adorning his face. Ed sat up as well, though it took some effort seeing as how Roy was straddling him._

"_Stop!" Ed's conscience could feel itself slowly filling his dream body and taking over the lust-infested Dream Ed._

_Roy's lips closed and he tried to regain his composure, "What? Why? Is something wrong? Does someone know you're here?"_

_Ed looked offended, and he felt offended, too. Shouldn't Roy be asking, 'Did I hurt you?' or 'It's alright if you don't want to do anything tonight, Edward.' or just even 'Is there something wrong I can help you with? I don't want to make you uncomfortable.'_

_Edward snarled and Roy sat back a little._

"_What are you even doing to me?" Edward seethed, "I don't even know what's going on!"_

_Roy looked confused for the long moments after his lover's comments, but then his face twisted into one of recognition, "Ohhh! I get what's happening. I'll get off you if that makes you feel more comfortable."_

_Ed watched skeptically as Roy moved off of him and sat properly on the couch they were on. Ed copied his movements and watched the older man for an explanation._

"_You're Edward, right? Like, we're on a mission," Roy said._

_Edward nodded furiously, "Yeah, 'course I am!...Wait, how do you know-of course you know, you're a figment of my imagination! Ha!"_

"_No, I am not," Roy shook his head, serious now, "I am Roy Mustang's dream self."_

"_What do you mean by that?"_

"_I mean just as your conscience, a.k.a. you, had trouble taking over your body…that body, that you had trouble taking over, is your dream self, and frankly your confusion should have only made your conscious, well, conscious of what your dream self was doing," Roy shrugged._

"_So, you're Roy's dream self?"_

"_Yes, I just said that," Roy stared at Ed._

"_And what do you…mean by my conscious?" Ed wondered. He didn't really get what was going on, but instinct took over and he wanted to learn more._

"_Well, your real self's conscious is basically a mixture between your mind and soul. It's those two aspects working together to create an environment for your dream. You know how people say your dreams are a reflection of your day or what you have been thinking about? Well, your dream self carries that out," Roy scratched his head, "If you are conscious in your dream-which only some people can actually remember when they wake up, nevermind being able to do it-then you should only be able to tell what is going on. But during our dream selves' affairs, you've never pushed me away. So obviously your conscious took over. So hello, Edward, it's nice to meet you and I'd like to get back to my dream."_

"_Wait, you're…Roy's dream self!" Edward gasped in understanding._

"_Yes, I've made that clear, what, twice now?" Roy grumbled loudly._

"_No, no, I mean," Ed shook with fear, "Roy is dreaming this dream?"_

"_Yes, my conscious and your conscious both have the same goal in mind, whether Roy wants to admit it or not," Roy sighed, "I'm so ignorant and such a bastard."_

"_You got that right."_

"_Anyway, on with the main point, I mean to say that, well, if Roy's real self really didn't like you, then one, you wouldn't have any wet dreams. Two, you would never feel any contact during the dream and, or you wouldn't even be able to initiate any contact with me. And soon enough, Roy's dream self would escape your environment your conscious set up and go back to his own dream." _

"_So I'm basically…you can call other people into your dreams simply by wanting?" Ed's eyebrows rose. This was power he was not aware of and strangely, it intrigued him._

"_Yes," Roy nodded._

"_And…if you are called into another person's dream and don't like it, would that be a nightmare?" Ed questioned._

"_Yes, that is one type of nightmare that can occur," Roy nodded. The kid caught on fast!_

"_What are the other types?"_

"_Well, like I said, if something is in your thoughts all day, like a fear or phobia, then that may just create the environment for your dream. That is another type. I will not tell you anymore, though-your dream self knows this, if you were strong enough to take over your dream self's body then why don't you just lay back and talk to your conscious?" Roy sneered. He looked like he was annoyed by Ed's questions, and Ed felt just a smidgen guilty because of it. Yes, this was Roy, but Roy's dream self was much, much nicer than Roy's real self._

"_Also, I'd like to get back to molesting you," Roy added._

"_Oh, right, um, how do I uh, go back to sleep?" Ed blushed, wanting to stay awake for what Roy would do to him._

"_Relax, and it'll happen, and I'll initiate the dream when I see fit," Roy answered._

"_Also…one more question?"_

"_Yes?" Roy raised an eyebrow._

"_Um, will the real Roy remember this?" Ed blushed even more._

"_Who knows," Roy shrugged, "All I know is that his conscience is not doing the talking, but I don't feel his presence. Then again, the more your dream self gets invaded by your conscience, the less you can feel it. And I'm pretty damn old, if I do say so myself."_

_Edward giggled, then covered his mouth with a blush. Did he just giggle? The blonde shook his head and laid back and closed his eyes, trying to relax. Roy thought for a moment, then stroked Edward's hair, and Ed smiled, telling dream Roy that it was helping._

_Soon enough, Ed blacked out, and his conscience was kicked out from the dream._

:~H.n.R.~:

When the man woke up, he felt sore all over his body and he himself felt violated and plain _crappy_. He looked under the sheets, and the man's thoughts were proven-he was definitely sticky. He looked over at the man in the other bed, making sure he wasn't awake. Sure enough, his brunette companion was sound asleep, and snoring, by the sound of it. The man shook his head, wondering how he slept through all that noise. Sighing, he got out of bed and wandered over to the bathroom.

He clenched both of his tanned fists around the edges of the bathroom sink and stared at his reflection in the mirror. There was slight redness under his eyes and…were those bruises all over his arms, chest, and…and legs? What the fucking hell did that bastard do?

The blonde-haired young man seethed at his reflection and breathed slowly, trying to calm himself down. He stood in the tiled room like that for quite a while, his ragged breaths slowly becoming softer and more fluid. When he didn't feel like murdering a certain raven-haired commando anymore, he took his shower.

:~H.n.R.~:

When the man woke up, his whole body felt sore and violated and plain _crappy_. He raised the white, cloth sheets to take a look at his lower body, and his earlier suspicions were confirmed-he _had_ had a wet dream, although he couldn't remember _what_ _it was_. His gaze traveled over to his companion in the other bed, and sighed with thankfulness. His wet dream hadn't woken the other man up, by the sound of his loud, loud snores. How the hell did he sleep through those snores, anyway? He didn't _want_ to share a room, but he overhead someone talking about how selfish he came off as, so his macho self wanted to prove to them that he wasn't so selfish. Big mistake, now he looked like he wanted to molest his whole team. He shook his head and tussled his hair, getting up so he could clean himself off in the bathroom.

He leaned against the sink, hands gripping both sides of the white porcelain forcefully. He stared down his reflection in the shiny bathroom mirror and sighed at his appearance. His eyes looked bruised and his face and cheeks were tinted red from either being hit repeatedly or some sort of weight being put on them for too long. Or from blushing. He really hoped that he had just laid on his cheek when sleeping. His eyes then traveled down his body, where he found lines in his skin-definitely from laying on wrinkled sheets for too long-and slight, red bruising? Where the hell did this come from? And then there was the sticky mess in the middle, covering up anything the middle-aged man really didn't want to see.

The raven haired man blinked in slight confusion. What kind of wet dream did he have this time? Usually he couldn't really remember any of his dreams, just tidbits here or there. Maybe a flash of hair being whipped to the side, a glance of clothing being thrown at him for some reason, but other than that, the only dreams he could remember vividly were his nightmares, and especially the ones about Ishbal.

Roy shivered, _Ishbal_. He shook his head and stepped over a high-rise in the floor to enter the shower and get a wet rag to erase his dream's evidence from the bed. Wouldn't want any suspicions from his sleeping officer to arise if he checked out the room while he was taking a shower, would he? Because that'd be cliché.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Sir?"

"Don't speak to me, Nicolas!"

"But, sir…"

"I said don't speak to me!"

"Edward, sir, but, I mean, I really need to talk to you about it! If it's causing you trouble!"

"NICK!" Edward whipped around, seething. Nick took a step back, afraid of his superior. The blonde's fists were clenched and so were his teeth, and his face was starting to be tinted red with anger.

"S-sir…"

"You're not supposed to be concerned about me, alright? Just stop bothering me! You've been nagging me ever since I got out of the shower this morning, two hours ago! Can you just go bother your pork-infested girlfriend or something! We're on a mission, not a friend quest! This is the damn military! Leave me alone!" Edward screamed. One he felt like Nick felt wounded enough, he stalked off down the road, glad there weren't many citizens there that saw that.

Nick whimpered, then scrunched up his face angrily and ran off in the opposite direction.

"This isn't even a mission anymore!" the officer cried.

**A/N: Yup, if you feel mad at someone, mope around in the bathroom, flip off your reflection in the mirror, then go take a bath. I don't care where you are, TAKE THAT BATH.**

**I basically created like a whole new plot thing there, with the dream crap and everything. Oh well, I think it's a pretty good way of Ed getting to know Roy without having to deal with his bullshit. Like a mind-reader thing. :D**

**Anyway, have a good New Year! Sorry to leave it at a cliffhanger like that. :3**

**Playlist**

_**Homestuck Music (Titles of the Songs)**_

_**Umbral Ultimatum, Karkat's Theme, Eridan's Theme, Nautical Nightmare, Love You, Ocean Stars Falling, Flare, Galactic Cancer, Calamity, Do You Remem8er Me, Serenade, Bargaining with the Beast, Homefree**_


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Okay I said there were sexual themes and excessive swearing in the last chapter. For some of you, you must have been wondering what I was talking about. Let me tell you, I was planning on being much more descriptive in that chapter than I was. Anyway, lemme just tell you if you don't oppose it I will have to just say that that is a warning for later chapters? Because I tend to put a warning chapters before the warning is actually relevant. *sigh***

**So, um, school started again and the musical is officially over so that means I actually have to concentrate on school? Ah, it was nice while it lasted. I love excuses.**

**.' you were not meant to hear that**

**So I guess I will give you the tenth chapter and damn I need to write a lot because that songchapter I was talking about? Yeah that's really soon.**

**Also, while writing at least some or all of this chapter, I was pretty depressed. So if anything seems morbid or depressing, that's why. But probably not in this chapter. Ah well. *shrug***

:~H.n.R.~:

"_You're not supposed to be concerned about me, alright? Just stop bothering me! You've been nagging me ever since I got out of the shower this morning, two hours ago! Can you just go bother your pork-infested girlfriend or something! We're on a mission, not a friend quest! This is the damn military! Leave me alone!" Edward screamed. One he felt like Nick felt wounded enough, he stalked off down the road, glad there weren't many citizens there that saw that._

_Nick whimpered, then scrunched up his face angrily and ran off in the opposite direction._

"_This isn't even a mission anymore!" the officer wailed._

:~H.n.R.~:

He first heard the fighting and moaning just an hour after he left quarters with a satisfied belly. Wondering what it was but wanting to be a bit secretive, the soldier ran all the way down the street and when he reached the first main turn in the road, he turned right and did a U-turn to face the scene where he heard the sounds. That is where he came face-to-face with Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist.

The last person he wanted to see right now.

The blonde, at first, did not even recognize that he was there as he stormed forward in his rage, dignified at the least. Then, as his steam wore off, his face twitched slightly when he saw someone standing there, and his mouth set firm when he recognized the raven-haired man.

"What do you want?" he growled. _He's sounding more and more like me when I'm angry_, the surprised man thought, _Deadly but in power and dignified._

"I'd just thought I'd visit your part of town," the man lied with an innocent tone to his voice and a completely straight face. Edward glared at him with skepticism, and then stalked past him. The man was confused for a second, wondering whether he should follow the angry alchemist, stay where he was in fear until the storm passed, or go his own way and forget this ever happened. But his problem was soon solved, for the second time in, what, three days?

"Why don't we get something to eat, Roy?"

_But I just ate…_

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward was angrily but slowly attacking his food. Roy could tell he was taking out his frustrations by torturing the poor, already-dead turkey, but he did not say a word in fear that that silver fork would be embedded in his forehead instead of the who-knows-where of the turkey slices.

After five minutes of stabbing his food and nibbling little bits here and there with apparent rage, Edward glowered up at his ex-superior officer and Roy cringed.

"I brought you here to talk, so let's talk," Edward said, sotto voce. He interlaced his fingers and laid his elbows on the table, pulling off another one of Roy's attributes that the teen himself used to be so ticked off by.

Roy looked mildly confused, mouth quirked up on one side, "Well, I really don't know what you mean by that, so why don't you address the situation at hand?"

Edward snarled under his breath, flashing his pearly whites, and then spoke, "Two days ago, when you came on to the balcony to speak to me, I wanted to be left alone. Ah, ah, ah, don't talk, it's my turn. Be patient."

Roy scoffed.

"As I was saying, I wanted to drown in my own thoughts, to be poetic at the least. But you had to come upstairs and bother me. As you could tell I was trying to ignore you but to no avail. Being your stubborn self and knowing how I can't resist a challenge, you tricked me into agreeing to tell you what was on my mind. The same problem led me up the stairs and away from you. Now, if you hadn't been so stubborn, your stupidity would have just gotten us into another quarrel instead of this deep barrel of fucking shit we're in."

Edward took a breath and righted himself. He wasn't so used to talking for this long-either someone was yakking at him (Winry), he was being cut-off or ignored because he was a "child" (Roy, and sometimes Breda), or a knife was being thrown at him to tell him to shut up (his teacher, of course).

"So now it's the next morning. I wake up, groggy, and all of a sudden I remember that promise I made to you the night before. The reason I was so late was because I was so worried about…coming up to you and confessing my feelings. I already had to hide it before because I was afraid that others would push me away simply because of what gender I liked. I only know people I care about, and if they pushed me away I would know it was simply because they were homophobic." Edward coughed for effect, and then continued. "I decided that I might as well come in, because you'd be mad at me no matter what I did, like always. And you know the rest. I confess, you get pissed off at me and avoid me for the rest of the trip, and I'm in a sour mood and I've probably just alienated one of my best subordinates for the rest of time because of that."

Roy was mildly astounded. He never knew that what he did would hurt Edward that badly…or maybe it was his denial. He was in a red blaze of fury where he didn't give a flying fuck about what Edward thought of his rejection, and was actually scared of Ed and himself when he was running away. And then for the rest of the trip up to now he was in denial that Ed was hurt emotionally. He told himself that Edward hadn't cracked because of anything else at work, so as long as everyone else saw him as fine (well, as far as Elrics go), then the teen could cry into his pillow all he wanted, for all Roy cared.

On the other hand, the elder man at the table had expected something akin to this to happen…but not so soon and not so calmly. He was about to make up something just to continue the conversation-a filler, if you will-but Ed got to it first.

"Wait, before you say anything, just let me tell you this. I don't want fucking hide nor shitty hair of your sympathy. Lock it up in a bottle. Go get therapy. Make love to some slutty bitch to get it off your mind. I just wanted to tell you so that I could get it off my chest, since apparently by your standards that's all I'm good at," Edward looked dignified yet…feral as he said this, "So choose your words carefully or I might just decide that I really _don't ever want to see you again_."

Roy swallowed the saliva caught in his throat, bit his lip, thought his words over for a second again, and then said, "Well, I was not expecting that, Edward, but…just as it isn't your fault that you are…"

Roy looked around him carefully, and then lowered his voice, "…a homosexual, then how can it be my fault that I am a homophobe? Maybe I had some trauma in the past that made me that way, or I was raised to believe the only relationship should be between man and woman, even though I am aesthetic. Have you ever thought of that? No, because you think the world revolves around you, Fullmetal. You think this is some love story, where the one in love always gets the one he wants, but you are _not_ _a main character!_ _I have a part in this, too! I have a life of my own, Edward!_ And you _can't_ rip that away from me just because you lust after me or whatever you kids call it these days!"

The blonde looked thoroughly disgusted and lowered his voice as well, "I never said all of that, first of all. Second of all, I'm not expecting you to have a cock-shindig inside my buttocks, _or whatever you old people used to call it._ I'm simply saying that you running away from me was unnecessary. That was just you being a bastard and trying to make me feel bad, wasn't it? You could have said you were homophobic and I would have understood-"

"No, you wouldn't have! You would have had that sour, pitying expression on your face for the next five years and mope around like a dead chimera. I know you, Ed, and you take things very personally!" Roy countered with a hot head. How could this kid accuse him of things he didn't even do?

Edward seethed, baring his teeth, "You know me, do you? You know that I would be saddened by this for long periods of time? Then would you know that I would never be able to find another partner in life because I'm too distressed over your rejection to let go of you when I never had you in the first place? If you knew that so well, then why would you run away like that? Just to _spite _me?"

"Edward, we're on a mission. We're in a fucking café for fucking _faggots_," Roy sighed and put his head in his hand, not noticing the look on his ex-subordinate's face that was alternating between glass cups and Roy's crown.

"Don't use that word," Edward warned him.

"What," Roy looked up at the other, "'Faggot'? Why? If it's such a derogatory term and you think oh-so-highly of yourself, then why should it matter?"

"It matters because you're saying it in front of me and you know it," Edward stood up abruptly and left the table, but not before turning around and saying loudly, "Colonel Mustang, I forgot to tell you one other thing."

"And what's that?" Roy pretended to look tired, a look that told the teen "if-this-is-some-sort-of-game-where-you-try-to-get-in-the-last-word-I-am-going-to-burn-you-on-the-spot."

"I decided yesterday that I would quit the army," Edward said with a stoic expression, trying not to grin sadistically when Roy genuinely looked shocked, "I'm going to get the normal life I never had. Don't expect me to say goodbye to you, because that's what this is. Although I should have probably let you suffer the surprise." Edward shrugged. "I guess you won't miss me then, and this conversation just made me want to resign more. And I guess, thank the military for making a special rule for me that I could resign whenever I wanted to because you were my guardian. And now that I am 19 they can't take that right away from me because then they wouldn't have the small bit of co-operation they have even now from you, would they? Nevertheless, I'm going to do my best on this job, and after that I'm leaving. _Sayonara_."

And that moment is when Roy finally realized how much Ed cared for him.

**A/N: I sorry for cheesy ending! And I sorry for not updating in a month! But I have exams so I have an excuse. (- Still hasn't studied yet.) Anyway, I gave you lots and lots of big paragraphs, so I guess I am a little satisfied…even though this chapter is so short. Good luck reading this on your iPods if you are, because that will be a lot of words on the screen…kekeke**

**Anyway, I hope to write another chapter within the next three weeks. I know it's a long time but…you lasted this long, so…**

**Sorry! D: Gomendasai-ne~**

**Playlist**

Hivebent – Kylee Henke – Kylee Henke's Album

Iro wa Nioedo Chirinuru o – senya – Gensou Kaleidoscop~The Memories of Phantasm, blah blah blah

Crystamanthequins (Partial) - Piano – imbrog1 – Homestuck Piano

Kyoudai – N/A – Fullmetal Alchemist OST 3


	11. Chapter 11 editted

_**EDIT: I have been asked to clarify what is past and what is present in this chapter. So here's a key to help you out:**_

_**In italics – past**_

_**Normal text – present**_

_**If you have any more comments or concerns, feel free to review! I'm always open to suggestions.**_

**A/N: Stress from exams starting on Thursday is causing me to write. Although I'll probably post this after exams…ah I'll let you know in the second A/N (at the bottom).**

**:\ I don't feel like writing the songs I listen to as much anymore…it takes too long to write them down…I may do it every now and then but…yeah…maybe a song of the chapter? XD**

**Disclaimer: …What? I'm watching a…Lamborghini? It's pretty…**

**Warnings: OK THERE IS ACTUAL LIKE LIME IN THIS CHAPTER SO YEAH :D I'm so excited! . Excuse me for this, being a cliché author, but this is my first full-fledged, complete lime, or fruity anything, so…ehhhh! Please excuse me if I mess things up! **

**Another warning?: Puberty. Just. …read it…**

**Another warning? :O Language. :D**

:~H.n.R.~:

"_I decided yesterday that I would quit the army," Edward stated in monotone. Roy's jaw went slack with shock, and Edward continued, "I'm going to get the normal life I never had. Don't expect me to say goodbye to you…I guess you won't miss me then…I'm going to do my best on this job, and after that I'm leaving. _Sayonara_."_

_And in that moment of confusion, denial, and shock, Roy's painful heart didn't distract him from the fact that Roy had just realized how much Edward actually cared for him…_

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward clenched his teeth and moaned, "Stop teasing me…"

Roy bit and pinched the skin on the other's neck, his own pleasured moans muffled by his actions. The raven-haired man didn't bother to respond.

Noticing the silence, Edward sighed and then jerked up violently again with another moan stuck in his throat, "Ahhh…whatever you do, don't stop…"

Roy chuckled and moved down to his collarbone, licking along the curvature of Edward's upper chest, "You just told me to stop…didn't you?" Damn! He was getting hard off of just seeing Edward without a shirt on…!

Edward hands found their way up Roy's muscular arms, then down the older man's bare back and caressed his lower back. After finding that he could move despite being bit and licked-OHHHHH-he started to massage and knead Roy's back. At this touch, Roy arched and their bodies almost came in contact with the other.

Trying to fight fucking Edward right then and there, he decided he'd just speed this up and make it more pleasurable. Roy moved down to Edward's nipple and placed his soft lips on it. Edward moaned in encouragement again and put his hands on the back of Roy's head, pressing his new lover's head down ever-so-slightly in demand that he do something _now_. Roy caught on to this and periodically swiped his rough tongue over the nipple and then pressing his teeth down on it slightly.

Edward hissed when Roy lifted his head experimentally, the now-cold air hitting the wet saliva spilling over his chest. The blonde arched his back ever so slightly, more concentrated on curling his legs up so he could press his thighs against his-

"Ah, ah, ah~" Roy smirked and sat on Edward's thighs, pushing them back down to where Ed was laying down flat again. Edward pouted at the man and stuck his lips out, which only invited Roy to bend down and kiss him.

:~.R.n.H.~:

Roy moved his lips in circular motions against Ed when the younger of the two wasn't responding in complete shock. He smirked and bit down softly on Ed's lips and pressed his tongue in the crevice between them, asking for entrance. Edward, after a short pause, nodded at the other's silent question. Roy rolled his eyes and put pressure on the other's lips with his own, and Ed got the idea and opened up his mouth to let Roy inside. They swirled their tongues together.

At that point, Roy, who was laying on top of Edward, reached down to stroke Edward through his pants. Edward moaned _loudly_ at the contact and arched up toward the welcome, rough hand.

"_AH!_" Edward shot up in his bed and stared up at the ceiling. Panting heavily and eyes so wide they hurt, he fisted the bed sheets and tried to swallow to soothe his parched, arching throat. Aching, _ACHING!_

:~H.n.R.~:

Again, Edward slipped past his roommate and looked into the bathroom mirror disgustedly. He then washed his face, wishing away the redness, but instead, when he raised his head, he found something else to worry about.

Shakily, Ed raised his right hand up to his lower jaw and blanched. The texture of his face was…_rough_ and _itchy_. And slightly darker than it had been yesterday. _Don't tell me_, Ed thought, _Don't tell me I'm-_

_AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!_

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward was sitting at the corner of the table quietly, hands clasped together and between his legs (not in a perverted way, mind you). His face was turned downward with a worried expression while the rest of his teammates were talking.

As of now he felt very ashamed of his newfound…_discovery_ and couldn't confide in anyone about it. Alphonse would laugh at him-on that thought, he probably shouldn't tell him about it tonight when he said he would call his older brother. He just basically ditched Roy in every way possible, so he wasn't sure if Roy would go near him even now. Wasn't he a homophobe, anyway? And Nicholas-Edward had taken to calling him by his proper name even since that incident in the road yesterday-was probably still mad at him, so Edward was guessing the child-like soldier would bully him for it.

Why didn't he just shave? Well, considering his surprise that morning, you should have figured _out _that that was the first time Ed had even seen _peach fuss_ on his face.

Pffft. Tch. Duh.

So when one of his soldiers called for an emergency meeting because a lead had come up, Edward had taken to hiding his lower face under his bangs.

"…I talked to one citizen. Her name was Cevillia Yearout. Blonde hair, blue eyes, beautiful smile," the soldier beamed. Both of the female soldiers in the group glared at him pointedly, and he shrunk back and continued on, "She said that she wasn't really too interested in what happened in the town. Even though this is her hometown, she doesn't care too much for it and would be okay with moving for a little while to Central if necessary, yadda, yadda, yadda. She wouldn't reveal too much to me once I told her my rank, but I'm betting she's willing to listen to Major Elric here."

Edward raised his head _slightly_ when he heard his name, "Ah, yes…I hope she would be."

"Well, I would advise talking to her today," Nicholas's female counterpart spoke up, shuffling around the rough, beige napkins that had been laying on the table in her hands nervously, "She probably seems like she won't keep her patience if we wait too long."

"That's right," Ed used this opportunity to nod his head and hide his face more, "I'll leave in about an hour to give her time. It's stressful having a military man in your home."

The rest of his team-except for Nicholas-nodded in agreement and settled into silence. It soon became awkward and Edward slowly, _slowly_ realized that he had to dismiss them.

"Dismissed," Edward grunted, and three of the five members of his team got up and left the coffee shop they were in. Only Nicholas and his female counterpart were left. Guess who Edward chose to talk to?

"You know, I never learned your name," Edward murmured.

The brunette woman looked up at her superior, "Nadele, sir."

"Nadel?"

"No…Nadel, but with an 'e' at the end. Silent 'e', sir," the woman corrected, "It's like that famous singer but with an 'n' at the beginning."

"Ah," Edward said in understanding, then put his head back down. They sat in more uncomfortable silence like that until Nicolas got up and briskly made his way outside. That left Edward and Nadele.

"So…" Edward spoke up again, "I'm guessing she wants me there alone?"

"Yessir," Nadele nodded, "She seems to not trust us lower-ranked officers. But I can understand her decision, sir."

Edward nodded nonchalantly. He knew that Nadele had offered a bit of opinion into her answer, and he let it slide. He wasn't a bastardly douche bag.

Deciding that conversation would be a bit of a bore now, Edward got up and left the restaurant. Nadele still sat there, and took a sip of tea that a waiter set down just as soon as Edward exited out the door.

"Yeah, he's probably gonna die," Nadele said.

As if she were answering a question.

:~H.n.R.~:

_Knock. Knock. Knock._

The room was full of warm, soft hues. The walls were a light, peachy brown and the sofas were not much darker. A carpet of the same tone was spread over the floor, and desks and lamps made of mahogany joined in to create a sort of dream living room.

The woman sat in one of the chairs, reading a newspaper. Even she _and _her clothes matched with the color scheme of the room. It was the off-white of the newspaper that threw everything off.

_Knock…knock._

The woman looked up from her newspaper at the door, which was straight across from the living room. In-between the two, the thin hallway. She got up and made her way over to the shiny, wood door. Strange, she always thought, that she kept the door a lighter color than the rest of the wood in her house.

When she opened the door, she came face-to-face…or rather, face-to-neck with a young soldier. That much was evident by his clothing-bright blue. That would just not do in her house. But his golden, sunshine-colored hair and deep eyes were just perfect. She could use those colors in her kitchen…

The young man's lips were tight and he looked down at her, cold and wide-eyed.

"May I come in?" the man's deep tenor vibrated from his chest. The woman felt like a girl as her heart swooned.

"Yes, of course," she kept her outer composure calm and stepped to the side to welcome him into her abode. Turning his head to the left and noticing the warm living room, he turned and went to sit down.

"I'm sure you don't mind if I keep my boots on," the soldier looked like he wanted to sip some tea to hide his face, "I will only be here a while."

The blonde woman shook her head and entered her kitchen, which was separated from her living room only by a marble-and-brick island that matched the rest of her kitchen. It was rather…homely, in a way. It wasn't exactly up to her standard though. About those gold colors…

"You have marvelous eyes," she said, trying to use words to impress the man.

However, he seemed quite the opposite, "I inherited them from my father. …Quite the man, he was."

"Was? Oh, dear, it's a shame to see family members go, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," the man licked the inside of his lips, swallowed, and shuffled his feet.

"Would you like some tea?"

"Yes."

The woman hummed in appreciation and quickly made tea for the both of them. She made sure to get mint tea for the man, as she was sure he wouldn't like to be tired by the end of their conversation. She needed to see those eyes, after all.

"To get right to the topic," the golden man sipped his tea and looked at her across the room as she sat down, "One of my subordinates spoke with you earlier. Said you wanted to see a higher-up."

"Well here you are," the woman laughed.

"Name."

"Pardon?" the woman coughed slightly and looked up.

"Can I have your name please? Wouldn't be very polite of me to say 'you, woman.'"

"Ah," the woman laughed, "My name is Cevillia Yearout. Would you like me to spell it?"

"No, no, no thank you," the young soldier shook his head.

"And yours?"

"Major Riordan Lasky," the man offered, "Now, I'd like to talk about what you wouldn't talk to my soldiers about earlier."

"Ah, yes, of course," Cevillia smiled sweetly, "I wanted to tell them about the transmutation devices. You see, a couple of members of my extensive family have been delving into this…_science_, and I know a bit here and there about alchemy. That being said, I want to tell you about my father."

"Your father?" the man looked slightly taken aback.

"Yes…"

:~H.n.R.~:

"_Oh, oh dear!"_

"_Ah, I'm sorry, ma'am."_

"_No, you don't have to pick them up, it's my fault I dropped them, I wasn't looking where I was looking…oh, silly, clumsy me…"_

"_It's alright, ma'am, I-I…"_

"…_Yes? Are you alright?"_

"…_A-ah, you work at…"_

"_The laboratories near here?"_

"_Y-yeah, that…so I guess I never noticed you…I'm sorry."_

"_No, it's not your fault. I'm a secretary there, you wouldn't have noticed me, anyway."_

"_Why don't I treat you to dinner!"_

"_E-eh?"_

"_It's my fault that all of this happened to you. Such a fine woma-smart, young lady shouldn't be treated like this. I'm buying."_

"_B-but sir, I can't possibly take your money like this!"_

"_It's not your money you're taking…"_

"_Hm?"_

"_Ah, nothing…meet me at the laboratory at 8 PM, alright?"_

"_A-ah, wait!...Dammit…What should I do…?"_

:~…~:

"_Wow, you're smarter than I thought!"_

"_What's THAT supposed to mean?"_

"_You shouldn't be at your level with this level of knowledge!"_

"_Don't say that! I went to a college and received entry-level grades for an entry-level job."_

"_Even so, you can be much greater than this! I'm having a word with my boss, first thing tomorrow!"_

"_What the hell is your obsession with me?"_

"_Whoa, whoa, calm down…"_

"_I mean, my goodness! Why are you working so hard to make my life better? What is my life in comparison to the other 5 million people in this world?"_

"_Do you really want to hear the answer to that question?"_

"_Y-…no…"_

"_Alright, then. Sit down."_

"_A-alright…"_

:~…~:

"_Hey, Charyl!"_

"_Oh, hey, girl, what's up?"_

"_This guy got me promoted a bunch yesterday! I only bumped into him and he treated me to dinner. And now he's so obsessed he's trying to make my life better…I don't deserve this, though! I earned what I worked for, but I didn't work for this!"_

"_Sure you did, darling…otherwise, you wouldn't qualify for your job, now would you?"_

"_Ah, you're right…"_

:~…~:

"_A baby girl?" "A baby girl?"_

:~…~:

"_Honey, what are you doing?"_

"_Go back upstairs, I'm doing my work."_

"_Maybe I can help you-"_

"_No."_

"_Please, at least wish your daughter a welcome home. She's had a tough first day of school."_

"_Later."_

"_You'd better be up by dinner."_

"_Yup."_

:~…~:

"_Why are you doing this?"_

"_To make things right!"_

"_I've heard that line so many times in movies it's not funny anymore. Tell me what you are concocting this instant!"_

"_I…I'm making a clone."_

"_Fucking hell?"_

"_Look, I lied to you when I said I loved you and your body and everything about you…I do not love your body. You have a nice personality. We could be great friends. I thought I could give you a good life because I had no one to share my enormous income with. But I found out that I needed self satisfaction, too."_

"_What are you talking about?"_

"_Honey…I'm gay. And honestly, I can't love you the way I am. If I created a clone who loved you right under your nose…you'd just think our distancing was just a mid-age crisis…But I guess you're gonna stop me now, right?"_

"_You've been cheating on me?"_

"_I apologize for lying. I thought I could make it better."_

"_Fuck you and your stupid insecurities!"_

"_Honey, our daughter's upstairs-"_

"_FUCK! SHE WASN'T CREATED OUT OF LOVE YOU BASTARD! I LOVED YOU! LOVED! FUCK! She's my daughter! I'm going to have to leave before you can impose any of your homosexual tension on my daughter. There would be nothing wrong with your sexuality if you hadn't lied to me. Of all the sweet, nice gay people in the world it had to be the crazy one that I got! You DRAGGED ME INTO THIS."_

"_Wait, don't go-"_

"_AUGHHH!"_

"_Oh fuck oh fuck oh fuck…shit, I didn't mean to…no, that's-that's not blood, fuckkkk!"_

:~H.n.R.~:

"Oh…wow," the man swallowed, for he had not moved the entire time.

Cevillia nodded, "And after that, my father stayed with me until I was around twelve years old. I remember he started getting distant when I was eight years old. That was almost ten years ago when he disappeared…? I tried to see what he was using the circles for, but I couldn't make head nor tails of it."

"Probably because it was his own theories. It's understandable, I have tried to accomplish the same feat-it took me at least a couple of years."

"Ah, I only glanced at them for a couple of days…" Cevillia looked ashamed, "Anyway, I don't know where he is right now and nor do I care. But I would suggest asking my grandmother for some information."

"Where does your grandmother live?"

Cevillia told the blonde man her grandmother's address, and then bid him a farewell. Before the man could exit her house, she warned:

"Careful, my grandmother is rather antsy in the daytime. It'd be best if you visited at night. And maybe at the café? She doesn't like soil in her house."

The blonde nodded, "Will do."

**A/N: And I will stop there because this is not a really long one-shot. ^^. Sorry, I feel like if I had to read all this, I wouldn't remember anything! I know I still have quite a few things to do, but you'll see why I stopped it at this point in the next chapter. Which is-yes, you guessed it-the songfic chapter! :D**

**I can't even remember the last time I put up the last chapter. Was it one or two months ago? Can I blame it on exams and post-exam stress? Yes, I will, and I will tell you you have no reason that I could validate those excuses. I guess this was a bad time to start a fic during such a hectic year but at least I typed up-okay I will stop ranting. :I *zips up lips, throws away key***

**Meanwhile, I am also trying to figure out what my Homestuck fic will be, because I cannot write Dirk and Jake. It's just too hard. Jake is too spontaneous. And Jane's language is too archaically broad for me to use. XD**

**Until next time, adieu! (Can you guess the reference? :D)**

**2,789 words, about 8 pages. Aren't you proud. XD**


	12. Chapter 11 and a half

**A/N: HAI GUYS WHAT'S UP**

**This has actually been a really busy week…s. Weeks. But luckily for me writing is a bit of a stress reliever and I've been looking forward to this chapter since the second chapter. :D So here ya go! ^^. **

**Hey, here's a question before you start: Do you guys want chapter titles or do you not really care for them?**

**Here's another question: Are you guys okay with the formatting? **

**Alright, so here's the deal-i-o today: This is more of a backstory than anything. Hence the "half-chapter" part. :D Wish me well at the AnimeQtr convention today! ('Cause I'll need it.)**

:~H.n.R.~:

_Close enough to start a war_

Edward and Roy had always been really close. So close, that they fought whenever they were within shouting distance of the other. At first Roy just wanted to be a malicious bastard and keep the kid at arm's length. Hughes had predicted the kid would make him into a father, and even though Roy denied it with every fiber of his being, he felt like Hughes's prediction would come true, as it always did. Well, look where your "father" theory went now, Hughes!__

_All that I have is on the floor_

Whenever Roy wasn't dealing with the hot-headed Edward, he was dealing with the _other_ bastards at work. Soon, the bantering between the two alchemists became almost instinctive to them, and it became a nice distraction for Roy to keep his mind off of work without Hawkeye thinking he was slacking.__

_God only knows what we're fighting for_

Soon, the two didn't even know why they continued to fight if it was second nature. They had no doubts as to how it started, and this original fury the two had felt-or rather, the defensive nature of Edward when he was 12 years old-was the highly flammable fuel to the fire. What else could Roy do but retaliate as he always had?__

_All that I say, you always say more_

At least Roy was glad he always had the upper hand in the fight. No matter how witty Edward was with his shouted words, Roy's apparent calm demeanor and his smirks always pissed the Fullmetal Alchemist off to the point of incoherence. Once Roy [quickly] learned this fact, and that it would always work, the raven-haired man felt even more triumphant.

:~H.n.R.~:

__

_I can't keep up with your turning tables_

Edward felt really frustrated. Walking through the rain really helped him to clear his mind, but his automail always tended to start to ache (like his heart) and furthermore reminded him of _that _bastard. What always put Edward off was how Roy was able to counter anything he said and stay calm to boot. He had rarely seen Roy furious-or with really any emotion on his face besides smugness, boredom, or slight surprise. Wow, _what a range_.__

_Under your thumb, I can't breathe_

The reason Edward never really considered himself part of Roy's command-even though he kind of was now-was because, at first, he didn't want to become one of Mustang's little servants. He respected the members of Roy's team, but he couldn't help but shake his head at them for falling for Roy's…charms?, whatever they were. Also, he was traveling so much and doing so little desk work that he didn't feel like a soldier at all. He was never required to transfer. He was never required to fight in a war. He was never required to salute the Furher. Well, maybe that last one was because he was seen as an immature child who couldn't think as quickly as the other soldiers. But he wasn't! But he took advantage of their assumptions because it gave him a lot of leeway that he appreciated very much. __

_So I won't let you close enough to hurt me_

But that was beside the point. Ed didn't want to get close to Mustang personally, either, because then the womanizer would try to try his skills on the other gender (in this case, Ed's). But then after Alphonse got his body back, Edward's body went back into a normal growth rate since it had been slowed drastically as he had been supplying nutrients and rest for both himself and his starving brother at the Gate. This was why Ed had only gotten peach fuzz now, only growth until now, only had _teenage hormonal urges_ until now.

Edward thought it would have been easy to escape the Mustang fervor that apparently no woman except for Riza Hawkeye was capable of escaping. But that was because his hormones were still that of an _11-year-old's_.

So now Ed had been infatuated with the handsome man and been "forced" to confess to him not but a few days ago. And as you all know he had been rejected.

:~H.n.R.~:

__

_No, I won't ask you, you to just desert me_

Roy didn't mean to alienate Edward _that_ badly. He had just been sick and tired of being taken for a man-whore…well, sexually, he was, but not in other ways. He did not go from girl to girl desperately seeking attention. He liked to say that he attracted girls with his witty and handsome demeanor. And focus on the word "girl", please. Roy was not raised to like boys nor men, and even though he wasn't strictly straight, he was not willing to experiment with a hot-headed blonde half his age who would most likely trick him and get Riza to stick a gun up his ass and well…You know the rest.__

_I can't give you, what you think you give me_

He simply couldn't return Edward's love for him. If it was physical attraction, Roy would admit that Edward was a very handsome man, but he considered him competition, not an interest. If it was a more romantic attraction, Roy especially couldn't reciprocate because…

…well…

He was afraid of Ed. He knew he was strong but would not hurt anything he cared for. But did he care for Roy? He seemed a lot like a horny teenage right now, strangely. So would they fuck and Ed would leave him bleeding in his bed? Or would Edward make him his lover? Was Ed into kinky stuff like violent sex? Roy was up for that every now and then but he wasn't _that_ desperate. He liked to be treated nicely and that went for his body, too.

:~H.n.R.~:

__

_It's time to say goodbye to turning tables_

Edward didn't want to keep this one-upmanship game Roy was the master of.__

_To turning tables_

He was sick and tired of it. He admitted his attraction and got rejected. He could deal with that.

But not with the insults Roy pounded him with.

He was going to leave that man so he couldn't reach him any longer. It may be selfish of him to leave Roy hanging but he was not going to let the Colonel see him cry. No one had before except for his father, and no one else will.__

_Under haunted skies I see you_

Even though he was adamant with his plan, he did not want to move out of Central for fear of contact with Dream Roy. __

_Where love is lost, your ghost is found_

Dream Roy treated him nicely and gave him hope that deep down, Roy really did care for him. Didn't mean all of those precise, bastardly things he said. Besides, Dream Roy didn't only settle his nerves, but he gave him the physical satisfaction that Edward's teenage horniness craved ever so desperately.__

_I braved a hundred storms to leave you_

Despite the fact that in Central, Edward would see Roy sooner or later, he couldn't lose Dream Roy. He got the relationship and relaxation in his sleep that fate never dared grant him when he was awake. He was coming to terms with the fact that he would detail with Colonel Bastard everyday if it meant leaving, because leaving meant he would come back sometime.

Edward wanted a home he could come back to.__

_As hard as you try, no I will never be knocked down_

And he wouldn't accept Roy's bullshitting as long as he had that home. He knew he'd be living a lie and how disgusting it was. He was basically whoring Roy around without him knowing, like a drug. But the blonde figured it was just his way of dealing with the loss of something he never had.

But what if Roy found out?

Ah, fuck the bastard.

:~H.n.R.~:

__

_I can't keep up with your turning tables_

Roy shook his head and looked down into his cup of liquor. Then, he shifted his head to look at the person beside him, his roommate in the hotel. Nadele looked back at him and blinked slowly, clenching her glass in her fist as well.__

_Under your thumb, I can't breathe_

Nadele looked down into the amber liquid and swirled the ice cubes around in the cup, the soft clinking breaking the silence. Roy swallowed and winced when the action made a loud sound.

"You can't apologize to him," Nadele did not look up.

Roy stayed silent for a while, fearing that he'd interrupt her during one of her long pauses, but then it seemed as if she was waiting for a response. She turned her eyes up to look at him with a poker face, and Roy shyly looked back down at his drink.

"I don't understand why you won't let me," Roy grimaced, "I've hurt his feelings. He's still a member of my team and I don't lose people like that."

"I don't care. You can't let him know that you said the things you did out of your fear of homosexuals."

"I don't even know if it's a fear!" Roy snapped back, tightening his grip on his drink, "I didn't want to hurt him! He isn't a fling and that is why I can't have him!"

"You can't stay in a stable relationship?"

"No!"

"And why not?"

"Because…because everyone close to me gets hurt. I have to protect the people closest to me so I don't have to protect everyone else."

Nadele smirked and peered at Roy through her peripheral vision, "So, have you ever considered that maybe he feels the same way?"__

_So I won't let you close enough to hurt me, no_

Roy gasped slightly, astounded at the thought. No, the blonde was too headstrong and naïve. Then again, as he'd lately shown, Edward could also be extremely sensitive to the thoughts of others he cared for and especially of those he lusted after. Roy fit under both of those categories.

Roy turned to look at Nadele, "Why are you here?"

Nadele leaned back, "I thought I made it clear that Edward cannot succeed on this mission."

"But what the hell does that mean? You want me to have even more mixed feelings?"

Nadele shook her head, "That is not the purpose of this."

"Then why the hell-"

Nadele slammed her palms down on the table and stared into Roy's eyes, "I mean you have to save him. It will make him so disgusted that he can't deal with you. Then he can't lust after you and it will turn you off. You will know he will be safe. Isn't that worth a little angst? You've been dealing with it all your life. What's a little more towards the person you hate?"

Roy clenched his teeth, "I don't hate him! I never did! I just resented him for his crude behavior and inability to think three steps ahead-"

"But he isn't the one who is shooting for the top, is he? He doesn't have to worry about that." Another pause.

Then, "He is an alchemist. Alchemy happens in one reaction, no matter how much preparation a transmutation needs. Edward is an alchemist, I repeat. He is not a soldier at heart. He is not a geek at heart. He is a child, and he had wanted his brother's body back. That took one split second reaction. The boy never needed to think ahead. Now do you see? You were worrying and hating him for no reason, you simple fool."__

_I won't ask you, you to just desert me_

"But…I can't just…_let_ him go away…I care for him too much," Roy bit his lip.

"Then why did you react the way you did?" Nadele returned, "You're scared of him and scared for him. You don't know what to do and if you had thought about it that night on the balcony you still wouldn't have. Don't tell me that you care for him. It's just one of your ploys to get me to stop persuading you."

"Persuading is not a word you can use to describe what you are doing," Roy snapped again, "You aren't letting me visit him in my dreams."

"Perhaps because what is in your dreams is too much to handle."

"What could possibly be happening to my dream self?" Roy demanded.

Nadele shook her head and stayed silent, for once. Roy growled and grabbed the arms of his chair, "Tell me, dammit!"__

_I can't give you, what you think you give me_

"I want him to know that I care for him, even if I can't give him the same feelings he gives me!"

Nadele blinked, the only indicator that she was even listening.

"I will not let go of him while he is still in my sight! Even then, I will search for him until he knows that I care!"

"This is sounding an awful lot like love."

Roy's head snapped back, his dark eyes full of rage and sweat pouring down his temples. His head throbbed with anger and he could just barely keep himself from biting on his tongue.

"I don't-"

"Then why do you say these things?" Nadele turned to look at Roy again, "Are you saying he is your pet? Your belonging? If it is not love then it sounds like you think that pets should not be let to be strays without a beating."

"He is not a dog. He never was," Roy answered her.

"Then what is that feeling that won't let you let him go? Or are you just lying to me, Roy? You know that isn't smart."__

_It's time to say goodbye to turning tables_

"I won't let myself let him believe that I hate him. I won't let him fight with himself and let him think that it is his fault. He always does that," Roy answered.__

_Turning tables_

"And whose fault is that? You always told him to 'be more careful' and 'stop making a mess because it cost the military'." Nadele's voice slowly lowered, the rain drowning her out, "Think about that before I visit you again, Mustang."__

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward looked up at the entrance to the building, trying to let his bangs cover his eyes so that the rain would not pelt down on them. Confirming where he was, he entered the bar.

Inside, the walls were brown and golden from the light of the numerous candles and lamps around the room. Chairs and tables were everywhere, and the bar was to his left. He saw a small, old lady with her back to him, and figured that must be the woman he should talk to.

He sat down next to her and when the bartender came over he ordered a cup of whatever juice was the specialty in this area. The bartender said it was guava juice. Edward was confused as to what a guava was. The woman next to him chuckled.

"Ma'am?" Edward tried, "Mrs. Yearout, I presume?"

The woman chuckled, "Yes, that is a name I have. But I prefer Mrs. Lee."

Edward cocked his head to the side in confusion. He had hear that name somewhere before, he just couldn't place it…! Lee…Lee…Grandma Pinako told him about a Lee once-no.

Nonononono.

"Per chance would…you have…a sister?" Edward asked shakily.

"Yes, two of them," the lady smiled wistfully and looked up at the ceiling, "Their names were Pinako and Silvia. I'm the Linzi."

"A-hahh…" He _knew_ he heard that name somewhere. Lee was Pianko Rockbell's _maiden_ _name_. As in _this was Grandma Pinako's sister._

_Winry's grandaunt._

So if he or Al ever married Winry then he'd be indirectly related to Cevillia Yearout. There was enough bullshit in the family as it was, nevermind with Winry's parents being involved in Ishval. That mean Scar would be part of his family too, as he was now a hate-friend of Winry's as well. And then people would assume that the Elrics married the Rockbells to cover up the accidents here in Luciana. Gate, he could see the tabloids now.

"Young man, are you alright?"

"A-ah…" Edward blinked, "Y-yes."

"I presume you are here to ask me questions?" the woman smirked, "I'm guessing Civi sent you here."

_Civi? Pfft._ "Well, uh, yes, she did," Edward nodded, "I'm Major Edward Elric. I came to your daughter under an alias, so it would be much appreciated if this was kept secret until a later date."

"I understand," the woman nodded, "A blonde major came to me today and that is all I know."

Edward nodded. This woman was sharp, which he could benefit socially from. He was tired of all of this melodrama, "I have already heard about your son's past with your daughter-in-law. It was very frightening, and I'm sorry for that."

The woman shook her head, "No need to apologize, dear Edward. Now on to more important matters."

"Actually, this case has much to do with your son," Edward told her, "And I just want to ask you a few questions."

The woman smiled.

"Fire away."

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward managed to get a hold of some more information out of the old lady, gratefully. She told him that her son hadn't become immersed in alchemy until after he married Cevillia's mother, which intrigued both of them. She said since he was actually gay and looking for a clone, that may have been a reason, but she wondered why he just didn't back out of the relationship in the first place. Edward wondered the same.

Besides that, he managed to get the reason as to why Cevillia lives alone and a little more about what was happening in town. She lived alone out of fear of being used, and she may seem a little sadistic because of that fear. Edward blinked, not having any words to respond, and let Linzi continue on. She said that in this town, there were transmutation devices used and a few people disappeared, but she didn't suspect that they were being used as test subjects. Many of these people, as Linzi the old woman of the town knows, could very well have been outcasts were this still Furher Bradley's reign and his soldiers reached this town, which was almost chosen for a civil war. One or two were homosexuals, and a couple were poor-but very smart-people. Edward suspected those people were helping with the production of these devices, whatever they did. Linzi nodded.

Edward thinks it was about then the building started to shake and then exploded.

Linzi was admitted into a hospital, and he wasn't allowed to see whether or not she was still alive or not in the calamity. Edward himself had been thrown down by a heavy piece of wood holding up the ceiling previously, so he couldn't leap to Linzi's rescue. The bartender was dead for sure.

But the reason it was still on Edward's mind was not the fact that the building exploding obviously had something to do with the case. It was the cause of the explosion.

It was not any type of bomb or other type of explosive. It was fire carefully directed towards the pub. And Edward only knew one person who could control fire like that.

The thing was, did he hate him enough to kill him? Or was it his possessive nature that would not allow Ed to dump him in the way he did? Either way, he'd have to tread more carefully or else he'd be the next victim to Roy's vengeful nature.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Hey, Alphonse."

"_Evening, brother. How are you?"_

"Not so good."

"_What he'd do this time?"_

"Nothing, Al! Not…_everything _is his fault."

"_Yes, just most of the things. Now tell me the _majority _of your day, then, so I can beat him up."_

"Alphonse."

"_Yes, brother?"_

"Winry has a bigger family tree than Aunt Pinako lets on."

"_Do tell."_

"Turns out Grandma has two sisters, one named Linzi and the other named Silvia. Grandma's maiden name is Lee, and I met Linzi Lee today."

"_Whoa! Just out of the blue?"_

"Well, actually, she married and has a different name-Linzi Yearout. Her granddaughter, Cevillia Yearout, was giving me information on her father, who has something to do directly with our case," Edward looked up at the phone and turned to gaze at Nicholas, who had his back turned to him, "You sure this can't be tapped into?"

"Fuery said it was okay," Nicholas muttered, not turning around.

Edward sighed and turned back to the window, "Anyway, so if you married Winry we'd be married to a bunch of psychos, too."

"_We should write a book. __The Elric Guide on How to Complete Fuck Up Your Life__, by Edward Elric. Co-author, Alphonse Elric. Dedicated to Alphonse's girlfriend Winry Rockbell, who failed to stop the Elric bullshit from invading her personal life. Ah, I can see it now."_

"I was thinking the same thing. Unfortunately, the pub we were in blew up before I had a chance to enjoy my guava juice."

"_What the hell is guava?"_

"I don't know!" Edward huffed.

"_So what about the building?"_ Alphonse suddenly turned serious.

"I don't know if Mrs. Lee is alright. The bartender died, sadly. He was a nice bartender, too…"

"_Don't tell me you guilt-fucked him."_

"ALPHONSE!"

"_What? I could totally see you getting some guy into your pants with your big puppy eyes. Man, you don't do it often, but when you pull a guilt trip the cost is through the ceiling!"_

"Oh shut it," Edward huffed, "I did nothing of the sort. You know my feelings on…" Edward glanced at Nicholas warily, "…that topic."

He could hear Alphonse laugh, which ticked him off, _"Alright. I hope Mrs. Lee is alright."_

"Me, too."

"_Do you know what caused it?"_

"That's what I was dreading telling you," Ed sighed again and turned towards Nicholas, "I'm sorry, but I'm going to have to send you next door. This information is private."

Nicholas nodded and exited their hotel room without looking at his CO.

"_Stop sighing."_

"Sorry! I just messed up things with a friend I just made and now he hates me."

"_Why don't you apologize?"_

"Unh…"

"_Don't have to say you didn't think of that. You never did."_

"Can we please talk about this after the exploding building?"

"_We can."_

Edward huffed in annoyance, "Okay, so, I suspect it was the bastard who did it."

"_Edward, I'm coming there right now."_

"No, just wait!" Edward panicked, "I can say it was almost 100% him, because he has disguised notes and is the only one who can do fire alchemy, right? But I don't know why he would try to kill me with other innocents in there! I mean, after Ishval, I would think he'd be hesitant to kill _anyone_, but then again I did just diss him in a public place. Or maybe he's too possessive of me."

"_It doesn't matter. Buy him a good casket."_

"Why would he need a _good _one?"

"_So when I toss him in there he won't fall through and poison the Earth."_

"Alllllllll!" Edward whinned. He couldn't tell if his brother was being serious or not, "Besides, if you truly want to kill him, he's not gonna go down without a fight! If he thought he could kill me when he knows I have quick instincts from my training with Teacher, then he's definitely going to try to kill you! I bet he cares even less for you than me!"

"…_And why would you say that…?"_

_Uh oh,_ Edward realized his mistake. Even though Al knew so, he was used to everyone loving him so he could channel that cheerfulness towards his depressing, angry brother. "Well, I mean…I'm sorry Al, I just-"

"_It's okay, I know what you mean. It makes it easier to kill him, anyway."_

"And vice versa!" he sighed _again_, "I'm really sorry, I didn't mean-I just…I just meant that he…doesn't…he thinks of you as a nice kid and doesn't want to interfere and mess things up…? That's what it seems like."

"_I think you're right," _Alphonse giggled, _"Sounds like you two have something in common. Sadly, that will have to change."_

Edward didn't even bother yelling his brother's name in disappointment.

"_Now, about your friend. Is he a fuckbuddy?"_

"NO!"

"_So not a fuckbuddy."_

"YES!"

"_So he's your lover?" _Al sounded thoroughly pleased, _"First step to moving on! This is going along well for my plans!"_

"Ugh…Alphonse, seriously, is there any other way I can…'apoligize' without doing it verbally?"

"_If he can get hurt that easily-because I know you aren't good with words and couldn't send someone into a soul-searching journey-then that means a simple apology will help. You don't apologize easily, therefore he will know, even if he doesn't know you well, that it is heartfelt. I think that will be enough to at least get him to talk to you. I've heard how much he, or rather, the lack of how much he responds when you talk to him."_

"Am I that loud on the phone?"

"_No, the phones can just transmit a lot of noise. They're progressing a lot these days."_

"Um, okay."

"_Well, actually, I promised Winry I'd come over, and I don't wanna keep you up all night. You won't call me again if you've had enough for one night."_

"You know that's not true, brother. I love you and nothing will change that."

"_Carefully, someone will accuse you of incest."_

"Not _that _again. Getting the tabloids 'set straight' was tiring enough."

Alphonse chuckled, _"Good night brother. Love you too."_

"'Night."

Once he put the phone back on the receiver, he collapsed on his back on his bed and sighed for the umpteenth time.

He'd just have to take each step one by one, wouldn't he?

**A/N: And I'll leave it at that. This is twice as long as the other chapters, mind you. :D I guess songfics are the way to go! **

**It's a little weird that the chapter that has a ½ next to it is the longest chapter…**

**Anyway, sorry you had to wait so long, again. It's Spring Break this week and since I had some time I finished this up for you. :3 So, since this is twice as long do I get two months for the next chapter? *shot* I'm kidding, I wouldn't do that…**

**Concerning Linzi Lee's and Silvia Lee's name, I got it off a name generator online. The name was "Linzi Silvia Lee", so I just used the first and middle name for two different people, as you can see. I did not mean for "Lee" to be a stereotype in any sort of manner. Speaking of names, I don't want you guys to stop paying attention to the Yearout/Lee family! They're part of this story too! Which is slowly turning into a Puella Magi Madoka Magica/Desperate Housewives fic! (I'm kidding I have no idea what those are like.)**

**And if anyone can guess by reading Roy's dialogue, you can tell that I had just finished watching Puella Magi Madoka Magica. I recommend it.**

**See you in the next chapter! **


	13. Chapter 12

**A/N: It seemed that the last chapter confused a few people, and if so, don't be afraid to ask me about it! I don't use a beta nor have one, so something I have thought up in my head may miss its way onto the paper…or, well, the computer. So thank you for reading and following and favoriting this story! I especially love all the reviews, because it's nice to know what people think about your work. (Partly why I don't use a beta, now that I think about it. But I digress.)**

**Review time! Man, I don't know what it is about anonymous reviews but sometimes they are the best ones with all the theories and opinions and it just makes me want to write more. XD**

**To M.L: **_**Yeah, I'm trying to kind of put all the blame on Roy here since this is mainly from Ed's perspective. I mean, Roy is being a mean asshole (because I'm making him do that! XD) but part of what he says is true. This isn't entirely his own fault and he feels like Edward is pushing his hurt feelings onto him, when Edward is actually the one who can't deal with heartbreak and is thinking over things too much. The reason I love to write Edward so much is because he is so in touch with his feelings (deep down, anyway *rolls eyes*)…in fact, as portrayed by the first anime, he is too immersed in his own feelings.**_

_**But yeah! I totally agree with you on your perspective on love! And that's why it contributes to Edward's self-imposed "depression", if you will. **_

_**On Roy and his outburst on homosexuals…trust me, I don't agree with Roy either. *shudders* It killed me to write that. And Edward, I do have to admit I am making him very self-centered. So again, both parties are at fault when Ed could have just dropped it and Roy didn't have to insult him like he did. But thank you for pointing that out! I always hold Edward in this holy light and fail to see what's wrong with him, so I (obviously) never noticed that.**_

**Awesome possum. 'Kay, let's get crackin' on this chapter.**

**Italics – past**

**Regular text – present**

**Warnings: Sexual themes. For real this time. Ever heard of that ghost-thing that comes to have sex with you or whatever that's kind of like a succubus? Yeah.  
>Also, Roy may seem a little psycho in this chapter…okay, a lot o' psycho. :3<strong>

:~H.n.R.~:

If you looked up at the night sky now, the only clue to the disaster that happened would be the smoke billowing through the air. Otherwise, the calm, penetrating darkness did nothing to allude to more recent events.

Hair as dark as the night sky waving around in the wind from the explosion, Roy stared, horrified, at the building that he had just collapsed.

"What have I just done…?" Roy whispered, his voice tainted with disgust.

"You've done what I told you-try to kill the boy," a slender hand was placed on his shoulder, "Of course, you and your pitiful self couldn't. Didn't you see him walk away with barely a scathing?"

"It…it doesn't matter!" Roy snarled, eyes snapping back as far as they could to glare at his enemy, "Sometimes I wonder why I listen to you!"

Nadele shrugged, "Well, I kind of exist as a physical and spiritual being. If you defy me I could easily harm you."

Roy snarled again, "No shit!"

:~H.n.R.~:

_Roy watched his master babble on about alchemy. He couldn't even remember what he was listening to. They were out in the garden, with his old master Hawkeye pacing back and forth, and he was sitting on a wooden box for some reason. It reminded him of the Titanic, with all those people who couldn't get onto the boats trying to survive._

_The main reason he couldn't concentrate, though, was because his imaginary "friend" was sitting-on nothing, mind you-beside him. Her dark brunette hair hung thickly down her back and her hands rested innocently on her lap._

_She trained her dark blue eyes on Roy, "Are you falling for the Hawkeye girl?"_

_Roy waited for his master to turn around in his exaggerated speech, then snapped his head to turn angrily in her direction to whisper, "No! I don't!"_

"_Well, I betcha you're gay if you don't," the girl-who was about his age-snickered, "She's real pretty. I'll take her if you don't."_

"_First of all," Roy said angrily as his master started to relate alchemy to the pink flower petals in the garden, "you aren't even real. Second of all, you only like girls 'cause of my sexuality. And _third _of all, I don't have to like every pretty girl in the world! She acts so pathetic around me and her father. Why would I bother with a weak girl like that?"_

"_Are you serious? You really only think about sex?"_

"_What's that supposed to mean?" Roy quickly shut up and shook his head when his master asked if he was saying something to him._

"_It means," the girl smirked, "that you are not conversational. All you look for in a good relationship is a nice body. I swear, you'd get together with an Ishvalan if she was sexy."_

"_Ishvalans? What have you got against Ishvalans?" _

"_Have you been reading the newspaper?"_

_Roy glared at her-a look that meant _"no".

"_You'll see," the girl cackled softly, "Kekeke."_

_:~F.L.A.M.E~:_

_Roy looked up the long, long way towards his mother's face. He could remember seeing her but not remember what he _saw_, per se. He knew from photos and faint recollections that she had a pretty, mature face, with soft blue eyes and wavy brunette hair that made her the poster child for a Fuhrer's wife. Damn good better looking than the one they used to have before Grumman._

_He remembered that they had gotten into the car, his dark-haired, broad-shouldered Lieutenant General of a father placing a hand on his mother's back as they exited towards the car waiting for them in front of their house. The shoes of the butler who stood next to Roy's small, petite frame lighting up as they reflected the explosion. The piteous whines he emitted when the vase near him fell and broke upon making contact with his jaw, when his mother and father had just been blown apart before his eyes._

_After the funeral, he stuck to keeping his six-year-old ass in his room. The butler took care of him and adopted him, as the butler was also the one who would keep all the money until Roy was old enough to inherit it at the tender age of 18. Then, one day, a little girl with wavy brunette hair and a blue-eyed smile sparkling on her face appeared at his second-story window._

"_Hi!" she said cheerfully._

_Roy glared at her sadly._

_She quirked her mouth as if she was studying Roy, then stepped through the closed window pane and fell slowly onto Roy's bedroom carpet with ease._

_Roy gaped._

_She brushed her hair to the side, the pink bow perched in the center of her head barely moving, "My name's not really all that important right now, but I can see you like the letter 'n', don't you?"_

"_My mom's name started with 'n'," Roy said softly over his bent knees and crossed arms._

"_That's cool I guess," the little girl didn't look impressed, "Anyway, when you want to decide what my name is, then I guess you can give me one that starts with 'n'! Until then, stop crying and get off that sorry piece of trash you call a mattress."_

"_This is comfy!" Roy objected as he jumped down from his perch._

"_Whatever," the girl flipped her hair with her hand again._

"_Your hair is really long. It goes down to your ankles."_

"_It's for when I get older," the girl supplied._

"_Who are you?"_

"_I'm you," the girl tipped her head to the side, "I am the object of your eternal longing."_

"_I want my mom, yes, not you!" Clenching his fists, Roy felt like he wanted to punch this girl back out from where she came._

"_Well I'm as good as you're getting," the girl flipped her hair _again_, "Besides, I'll help you and I assure you, you're not gonna _need_ a girlfriend when you're older. Since I'm you, I already know all your desires."_

"_What?" Roy was confused. What could teenager him possibly want that he didn't?_

"_Nevermind," the girl said flippantly._

_Roy did not like this girl very much. Fortunately, his being called down to lunch saved the girl from his fury._

_:~F.L.A.M.E.~:_

_Oh God, he could _FEEL _what she meant._

_She was like a pearly snake, twisting and turning her flexible body to match his lust-induced movements. As if on a cue, she laid her soft palms on Roy's chest and slowly let her fingers glide down his torso. Roy arched up, gripping the pillow above his head in agony and pleasure._

_They never really said anything when they had sex. There was no point in talking to yourself at all, but Roy wouldn't forgive himself if he let out a yell during these times. Someone would come up and simply see Roy arching and fucking the air above him._

_She was _always _on top._

_Placing her hands firmly on Roy's lower stomach, she got on her knees and slowly lifted herself over Roy's erect penis. Roy huffed in anticipation and filled his cheeks with air._

_The now-teenage girl impaled herself._

_Instead of the usual sound that would come out when in immense pleasure, the air that Roy had filled his cheeks with came out in a big _whoosh_ing sound, then escalated into panting._

"_Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…" Roy moaned lowly. _Shit.

_The girl smiled slyly and moved faster, "Come on, moan for me."_

"_No…"_

"_You know you want to. You want yourself this bad, you nasty bitch. Go ahead. It's masturbation, isn't it? No shame in that!"_

"_Ehhhghghhh…" Roy clenched his teeth, "I…have…headache…sto…unhhh…"_

_Why was ejaculation always so painful, even after her?_

_:~F.L.A.M.E.~:_

_Roy decided he wanted to be more adventurous. He wasn't going to keep having sex with the same person, over and over again, whether or not that person was "himself". Because of that brunette fucker, he also couldn't remember his dreams anymore. And he knew by the way he woke up with wet pants in the morning that he had missed out on a good dream that was about someone who was actually _real.

_When one of his one-nighters screamed at horror at the girl, Roy blanched and shoved his date out of his house in horror._

"_How could she see you?"_

"_I d'know."_

"_Why are you naked?"_

"_You asked me so that you'd actually be aroused. You said yourself that she was an ugly bitch."_

"_No, you said that!"_

"_But I'm you, Roy-uuu~"_

"_Shut up! Just shut up and let me think!"_

"_Okayyyy~"_

_:~F.L.A.M.E.~:_

_So after a while, Roy figured out that keeping the girl in the house while she slowly became visible to others didn't work, because eventually she remembered that she could go through inanimate objects. It was something that Roy tried to forget, but in a sleep-induced haze, Roy forgot that he was trying to forget that fact and, panicked, ran home from his master's to check if the girl was still in his room._

_Aaaaaaaand she wasn't._

_:~F.L.A.M.E.~:_

"Why are you ignoring me Roy?"

Roy ignored her.

"Huh? I want to know. You can't just do what I say and then get angry about it. Be a man!"

"If I punched you, you'd disappear. Then I'd look like a crazy person for conjuring up fake people."

"Ohhhhhhhh, that won't happen!"

"Like you know."

"And like I care! Remember, I'm a figment of your imagination, the conjuring of your desires."

"And is that why your hair has gotten straight, shinier, shorter, lighter?"

"Yes! I know you want him, but you won't let you. Isn't it my place but to make this a win-win situation?"

"You're ruining my friendship with him!"

"What friendship? He hates you."

"More so than he used to! Before you found an interest in him!"

"No, before _you_ found an interest in him."

Roy stopped, and Nadele stopped behind him.

"You need to stop."

"You made me."

"No! You became real because of the testing the homunculi were doing underground!" Roy whispered, "Who knows how many other fakes there are…!"

"What would you do if Edward was fake?"

"Well, he won't be!"

"And neither will I," Nadele smiled a smile that gave Roy chills just thinking about it, "Now, let's recap. I told you to blow up the building so that Edward would become detached. And I'm pretty sure he has. So now you can go back to your bantering from when he was younger!"

Roy was silent.

"Oh, you want him _now, _don't you? Well, it's too late!" Nadele spat, "I'm the one close to him now, not you! So get your grimy hands off of my subject! He's mine to isolate from you, not your own job! I'm here to keep you safe!"

"Safe is anywhere but near you!" Roy whipped around, shouting as well.

"If your own mind isn't safe, then maybe you should just _die_," Nadele hissed, "I wouldn't mind-at least if your unworthy feet aren't walking the Earth, then whatever happens to me I'm okay with."

"Fuck you," Roy spat back and stalked away.

Nadele grinned, reminiscing, "Oh, the times we had when you did that. Would you consider it again?"

"No!"

**A/N: Soooooooo that's a little on Roy's past. I hope you liked it! Next chapter's gonna be a little Alphonse-centric. **

**Don't be afraid to review! I'm proud to say this is not-grammatically-a horrible fic without a beta. :) Even if you don't have a problem with it I really like reviews because I love to talk to people about my fic and see what they think instead of an English teacher breathing down your neck. Not that that's bad or anything, I just need a break.**

**Weeeeeeee! (Ihavenothinglefttosay)**


	14. Chapter 13

**A/N: Hello! I have a headache. :D**

**I think I might need to make a plan of Ed and Al's apartment and street. Just for kicks, you know?**

**Let's look at the reviews!**

**To Suzeanne: **

_**Well, not **_**exactly **_**a succubus. Succubae, as I have heard, are female demons who appear in dreams and take the forms of human women to seduce men, usually which is through sexual intercourse. As a little extra bout of info, the male is called the incubus. (Got that off of Wikipedia and a Royai fanfic, if you were wondering) I took that idea and made it into Nadele. XD Nadele is a figment of Roy's imagination that became more and more tangible and visible to others because of the experiments the homunculi/Father did that I assume were going on in the manga version of Fullmetal Alchemist. Since she is also the manifestation of Roy's desires, and Roy (although he denies it) likes Ed, she has started looking less like Roy's mother and more like Ed, which means straight, lighter brown hair and a shorter, more lanky and thin stature. Not saying that Roy was into getting it on with his mom, I'm just not using the word "desires" in its sexual context. I hope that helps!**_

_**And yes, that last chapter was something. But, well, Nadele had to come from somewhere. Plus, I'm not a huge fan of Roy and his sadness over Ishbal – I was never really a fan of the Ishbal arc – but Roy HAS to be crazy! I mean, just look at him! XD **_

:~H.n.R.~:

A hand reached toward the phone; a light-skinned, boney appendage that was hesitant in its movements, but then retracted with almost a sort of regret.

Alphonse sighed and brushed his hair back with his hand. He really wasn't up to calling Edward today. He was going to try to cheer his brother up, yes, but this was about his brother's problems and getting over himself, not his own accomplishments. He wanted his brother to know he was there for him, and his own life would have to be put aside for that.

After all, his brother had dedicated five long, hard years of his life to him. It was time to return the favor.

Alphonse was also trying to find something else to do than sip tea and read the newspaper. Edward's snarky comments about his recent habits had hit him deep, and ever since the elder blonde left on his mission he's been trying to occupy himself otherwise. You'd think it'd be easy to stop reading the newspaper.

Besides, it was the morning, and he didn't want to wake up his lazy brother with news of his promotion.

The young man got up and put on his long, dark overcoat, then grabbed his baton and put it in his laptop bag. Then, a quick glance out the foggy window and he decided he'd need that fedora too.

Stepping outside, he took a deep breath of fresh, fog-filled air and went down the steps of his apartment complex. He then crossed the road in front of him and went south, opposite from East HQ.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Whew!" Shirley wiped her forehead and put her hands on her hips. She looked up at the high ceiling and stretched out her back, which had been bent over for the past hour as she had put away the other's work instruments. She flipped her wavy red hair out of the way with her hand and smiled. She wasn't going to let those lazy, loud, no-good-doers ruin her day. Today was her first date with her new boyfriend and nothing was going to impede on her cheerful mood.

She sighed. It was just that sometimes, it was really hard to keep it up.

Shirley heard the door open and turned to the left to see who was coming in at a time like this. Usually people would stay at work overnight because of the cold of winter that hit East City. She wondered, out of the few who went home, who had rushed in twenty minutes before work started.

"Hey, Shirle," a blond man entered, brown clothing making him look taller than he already was. With a grin, he took off his hat and put it on the coat rack beside the door. Shirley was about to tell him that that was the wrong wrack, no, you aren't promoted yet, but then she remembered his great speech yesterday about said promotion and kept her mouth shut.

"Hey, Alphonse," Shirley smiled and ran up to the man. Al held up an open palm and Shirley returned the high-five heartily, "Why didn't you stay overnight?"

"Eh, I called my brother last night. He's on a mission right now and I like to keep in touch," he explained, shedding his coat and laying it over one of the cheap chairs in the expansive room.

Shirley half-smirked, half-grinned knowingly, "Silly. It's too cold to be out and about. Besides, all your material for your new 'project' is here, it'd be tough to study that at home."

Alphonse shrugged, "I was planning on coming in early so I had a bit more of a sense of what I'm supposed to be doing now…but since I'm the best at what I used to do I guess I could get off the hook if I'm caught."

Shirley laughed, "We both know your boss is Hell incarnate."

Alphonse shrugged, "Yes, but I don't believe in Hell, so I'll let that one slide."

Shirley giggled again and stepped out of the way to let Alphonse walk past to his new office. When they reached it, Al put down his bag, got his baton and a big manila folder out, walked back into the large room and stepped onto the platform that was opposite the door.

"This," Al sighed, "is going to freak me out when the time comes."

Shirley smiled, "You'll do fine. I'll buy a ticket and tomatoes just to make sure."

"Peachy."

"Tomato-ey!"

"You are a horrible pun maker," Al raised an eyebrow at her, but other than that his expression was deadpan.

"And you, sir, are a lazy conductor," Shirley returned, "Welcome to a life of all-music, no-sleep, my friend. Although I'm pretty sure the 'no-sleep' has to do with your Winry-friend."

Alphonse frowned.

:~H.n.R.~:

"Nicolassssss~"

"With all due respect, please go away, sir."

"Nicolas, Nicolas, Nicolas!"

"Sir, I am not comfortable with you repeating my name. If it would please you, I would like for you to stop."

"Ni-HICK!"

"Stop singing! …Sir!"

Edward whined, "But Nicolaaaaas."

"What?"

"I want to talk to you-huuuu!"

"About what, sir?"

"About the CA-HEY-HEY-hey-haaaase!"

"Sir, you singing disturbs me greatly."

Edward chuckled, "Can I please just run it through with you?"

"Sure, whatever."

Edward rubbed his hands together, "Alright. So far we know the part of the Yearout family tree. There is Linzi Yearout, Silvia Lee, and Pinako Rockbell. Those three are sisters. We know nothing of Silvia, but both Pinako and Linzi are widows. Linzi has a son, who worked at a chemical plant that dealed with alchemists every now and then and met his wife there. They had a child in 1895 named Cevillia Yearout, and in 1899 Cevillia's mother died in an alchemy accident spurred by her father. At around 1903 her father started getting distant as claimed by Cevillia, and then in 1907 her father disappeared. We know that her father did not learn alchemy until after he married, and was actually gay. Because of problems in his marriage he wanted to make a clone of himself to live with his wife, but his wife caught him and died in the supposedly accidental transmutation. Aside from this information, we know that transmutation devices are being used and a few of the townspeople have disappeared, also we can safely assume that they are helping to create these devices since they are of minorities that Furher Bradley did not support during his reign."

Nicolas took all of this information in, a hand rubbing his chin thoughtfully, "So, since he is still not proclaimed dead-Cevillia's father, that is-can we suspect that he is the one making the devices?"

Edward nodded, "But we still don't know what they look like. They could very well be bricks with transmutation circles on them."

Nicolas looked like he wanted to laugh, but remembered that he was giving his superior the silent treatment and held it in, "Alright, so we should probably try to find someone who looks like Cevillia's father. That means you're going to have to visit her again."

Edward sneered, "Not necessarily. In my years of missions, I learned that people like doing sinister stuff in forests for some reason. So let's check there."

"That's an awfully childish assumption, sir."

Edward pouted, "Well, _you _tell me where to go, then."

Nicolas turned his head away, pouting as well. Ed laughed heartily and slammed his hand down on his bed in the hotel room they were sharing, "Well, it's the middle of the day and that's what we have to do. Why don't we send scouts first? And I want people who are, like, _spies_! So then they can, like, jump through my window like Ling and it'll be like old times' sake."

"Sir?"

Edward realized his mistake and shook his head, "Nothing! Let's just tell Roy's team and ask him if he's got anyone who is small and stealthy."

Nicolas stood up towards the door without a word, and then suddenly stopped in his tracks. Edward froze mid-step as well, quirking an eyebrow.

"Sir…" Nicolas did not turn around to face Edward, "I don't know what's going on with you. I can guess that your personal life is not balanced right now and you are trying to find that balance, but please, if you don't want me to be there to cheer you up and be around like what my understanding of a friend is, then please just say so. I am getting mixed signals from you and…I'm deeming it necessary to break the remains of our relationship. So please stop trying to get me back in my good graces. It's weird and making me uncomfortable, and it's not going to work."

_Sigh._

"Nicolas…"

Both men waited in their positions for a full five minutes before Nicolas cocked his head back, "What is it? We don't have all day, sir."

Edward swallowed and waited another full three minutes before blurting, "I'm sorry!"

Nicolas sputtered, his eyes widening and fists clenching. His nails bit painfully into his palms and he whipped around, "Don't mess with me! I told you to stop!"

Edward shouted, bent over in a bow with his eyes closed in fear, "I meant it! I'm really sorry and I really shouldn't have yelled! You're right! I shouldn't have done such an about-face! Even though it was over something so small I can understand why you were so sad! I'm just really cold-hearted because I've seen shit that shouldn't even fucking exist and I'm sorry I imposed my unnatural self on you! I'm sorry, Nicolas! Can we please be friends again? Please?"

The room was silent with all but a faint echo of the chaos that had just ensued. The brunette man in the lodging stood, astounded at his superior's behavior, and felt a mix of emotions run through him that felt so wrong.

If he laughed, then Edward would think he was taking his words for a joke.

If he cried at the amazingness of this improbability that just occurred, Edward would try to comfort him and then he'd see him as even weaker than before.

If he denied it-this was a brief thought that Nicolas immediately kicked into the trash. How could he deny such a begging?

And then there was the lust. Deep down in the pit of his stomach, or rather, whatever lay below that. Oh hell no, not this time. This was a person he wanted to be friends with. A person he could look up to. How could he have possibly gotten lustful feelings from this? Well, Nicolas knew the answer but he couldn't exactly go up and tell Ed to stay in that position while he-

Where the fuck were these feelings coming from? He could've _sworn_ he heard a woman chuckle.

Nicolas bit his lip and let the last feeling of all, sheer happiness that overwhelmed him and overtook all those others feelings (even the now-forgotten lust), take over his mind as well. He rushed up to his superior officer and hug-tackled him to the floor. Burying his head into the blonde's chest he yelled, "Thank you!" then murmured the phrase over and over again until Edward smiled and hugged him back.

**A/N: Nicolas is rather easy to please. ;)**

**Ahhh, I'm just joking! Don't mind the smiley there! XD**

**Anyway, I'm pretty amazed that I managed to write all that about Al's job without it really being clear as to what he did. At least I'm hoping it's clear as to what he does now. He's a music conductor! You know, the guys with the batons who conduct music! As for his promotion he got promoted to the level where he will get months-long projects to compose a music piece and either present it alone or with other pieces by other composers that he or a group of directors will present to an audience. And in the meantime Al will present other pieces not written by him. There is a much higher level job that Al hopes to reach in the future, where you get to compose whole shows! But he doesn't want to do that just yet because Al isn't as ambitious as Roy is and doesn't want to have the stress of that at such a young age. But still! He's a prodigy!**

**So now you know, now you know. XD Don't be afraid to ask questions and review! And, also a shout-out to everyone who has put my story on their alerts and/or their favorites. Thank you soooo much for that! I can't believe this story is that popular and I get new fans every week, at least! It makes me very happy to know my fanfics are bearable. XD **


	15. Chapter 14

**A/N: I've decided I'll post my responses to reviews in the previous chapters in A/Ns as well. It'll help me stay a little more succinct. (which is much of what I need) Also, I don't want to confuse people with reviews for newer readers. :V**

**To Suezanne:**

_**I'm glad they made up too! I also think that singing is a good way to get people laughing-I do it all the time just to see people's reactions. And I love Vic's voice as well, so I think that will add to the fluff factor, which I'm sure has risen by that little EdxNick scene. And, yay! I'm glad you like Al's occupation. I was inspired by the Broterhood OST covers and the headcanon that Ed is great at playing the guitar and piano, but I couldn't exactly have Ed doing that in this particular story, so to Al it goes! XD I agree, though, that Al wanting to set the pace isn't just an Elric thing. It's a thing everyone deals with, I'm afraid. Good luck to you!**_

**To rabid kuma:**

_**:D Yay! I'm funny? XD I'm really glad, though, that my fic made you laugh! It's heartwarming to hear that, as an author. I really try not to pack on the angst during this fic, and when I do, I want to make up for it, so I'm glad it's working! And yes, because I got so many reviews for chapter 13, I will update ASAP! **_

**To BlackWolf2Dragoon:**

_**Sounds like Manga!Roy. ;D But that is really cool-I never knew that the story could be flipped on its belly like that. Thanks for telling me that! It's good to know things about sex monsters. XD And I'm glad that you enjoy my fic! And boy do I know about being tired. I am the Queen of Tiredom and not even a pitcher of ice cold water can awake me from my eternal slumber. :)**_

**To e ():**

_**Welllllllll….it's not exactly AU. It's like FMAverse with a twist. I explained in a previous chapter that Kain Fuery invented them and gave the second one ever made in Amestris to Ed, and right now they are in circulation. The reasoning for the name "laptop" bags in the fic is because you lay them on your lap like a desk when you don't have space to do reports and things like that (that's my excuse). The reason I didn't want to call them a satchel is because satchels can come in different shapes and sizes and I specifically want people to understand what they look like because I am obsessed with laptop bags. But yes, you are right on that fact, so sorry if that confused anyone. Also, no, it is completely fine that you are pairing them together and liking Nicolas more than Roy. :D I also secretly pair them together! (great minds think alike, eh?) As for your suggestion, I'm going to have to say you'll just have to wait and see. As a little hint/reminder, Edward is already prone to finding substitutions for his object of desire. ;) **_

**So much for succinct. I guess I'll just ramble on about fic scheduling at the end to save my life-ahem.**

**And again, normal text means present, and **_**italics **_**means **_**a flashback**_**, and **_**'this'**_** means **_**'thoughts'**_**! Enjoy!**

**Warning: M-rated sexual content. **

:~H.n.R.~:

"Let's ask each other questions."

Nicolas turned towards Edward, head cocked to the side, "Are you alright?"

Edward turned towards his co-worker, his lips still slightly swollen from the nervous bitten lip he had given himself. He smiled despite the small twang of pain that shot through his jaw at all the smiling he had done, and responded, "Yes, I'm fine. You don't need to worry-you…don't need to worry about that. Besides, that was your first question if you're agreeing to play."

"Argh! Alright, your turn."

"Was that a question?"

"My turn!

"Dammit, you catch on quick."

Nicolas beamed and then asked, "Do you have any family?"

Edward almost flinched, and he hoped Nicolas hadn't caught it. No, he did not have very much of what he considered family left. But if Alphonse married Winry… "Right now I have one blood brother who lives in East City with me. But if you're asking about people close to me, I guess I have more than I anticipated at first."

As it was not his turn now, Nicolas could not inquire what "at first" meant. Instead he waited for Edward's interrogation. He was sure Edward was going to cheat and beat him to a pulp until he got the answers he was looking for.

"Have you been in a relationship before?"

Nicolas blushed furiously, "What do you mean by that? And no, that was not my turn! I haven't answered yet!"

Edward smirked and put his hands in his pockets, "I mean romantic relationships, both functional and dysfunctional. Come on, spill the beans!"

Nick sighed and looked up at the sky. He could really get used to this city. They had really nice cobblestone streets like the one they were heading down now, and tall, peach buildings that were in all in a line, just spaced enough from each other that it wasn't cramped like East City could get. A very tranquil place, away from Edward's probing gaze. "Yes, I have been a relationship before. And it's my turn so don't blurt out a question about how many!"

Nicolas coughed self-consciously as Edward laughed loudly at his outburst, and then questioned, "How many crimes have you committed?"

"At least a few. How many relationships?"

Nicolas groaned, initiating another hoarse laugh from the blonde man next to him. The brunette answered, "Three main ones. There were a couple of others that I don't really consider anything. They could be called flings, in a sense."

Edward whistled, "That's…impressive. In a way."

"Oh shut up. We're nearing the Colonel's lodgings."

"Right."

They approached another tall, peach-colored building, this one slightly taller and darker than the rest. It had four windows on the façade, and a row of shingles at the top of each floor. Nicolas rapped on the wooden-plank door on the house three times, then retracted his hand and waited.

After a few nauseating moments for Edward passed, a man with stark black hair and piercing raven-colored eyes opened the door. Ed hid his grimace.

After blinking confusedly at Edward's presence at his temporary lodgings, Roy turned to look at Nick and addressed them both, "Welcome. Is there something to which I owe the pleasure of…?"

All three men stood there, waiting for someone else to speak. When Nicolas realized Edward wasn't comfortable enough, strangely, to speak to this man, he spoke up for him, "We have an idea as to where the transmutation devices are being made. May we come inside, sir, to speak in private?"

The dark-haired man blinked a few times in surprise, then opened the door wider with a sort of emotional mask back on his face, "Ah, yes. Come right in, both of you."

Edward and Nicolas entered as requested, but both of their minds far from the environment they were in. Both wanted to go to sleep-Ed to see Dream Roy, and Nicolas to dream of Edward. Little did Nicolas know that Edward's dream self was already preoccupied.

Both had also been standing aimlessly in the living room with their wandering thoughts, and the dark and handsome man gave them a look before waving a hand in front of their face and requesting them to sit down on the couch behind them. And they did so.

The man clasped his hands together and stared at both of his subordinates, "So, you said you know where these transmutation devices may be produced."

Nicolas nodded, "Yessir. There is a secluded forest nearby here-we checked on our way over. We have reason to believe these devices are being manufactured inside of there."

"Is there anything else that you have learnt since the fire?"

Nick jerked back slightly. He hadn't seen this superior officer anywhere near that fire by the time he had gotten there, nor any of his team! How did he know…?

"No, sir," Nicolas answered shakily. The man seemed pleased with his answer, and nodded at Nick. Both Edward and Nick moved to get up, but the man held up his hand towards the blonde.

"Major, please sit," the superior officer instructed.

Nick and Ed gave each other uneasy looks, Ed's with a hint of pleading. Nick pouted a bit, scrunched his eyebrows into an apology, and left the room with his head bowed. As soon as he left another officer of his rank that looked very familiar out of the corner of his eye took him by the arm and led him upstairs.

Back in the living room, Edward was very interested with the hands clasped between his knees.

"Edward, look at me," Roy instructed. Ed looked up through his bangs.

Roy stood up and started to take off his military jacket.

"Wah, wah, whaaaat?" Edward put his hands up, flustered, and started waving them around, "What are you doing? This isn't some sort of time where you can get some make-up sex on and everything'll be-"

"This isn't about now, Ed," Roy deadpanned, still shedding his jacket, "It's about last night."

"Whaaaaaa?" Ed froze in confusion as he watched the jacket fall along with his arms. Underneath the jacket was a normal white polo shirt with a small, barely noticeable, blue emblem on the right side. It looked like a normal piece of civilian clothing at first, save for the very muscular arms Roy had which would hint at his military background, but once Edward kept staring at the shirt, he realized something special about it.

It was the shirt Dream Roy was wearing last night. Which meant that Roy knew that he was having sexual dreams about Edward.

Once Ed realized this, you would think he had nothing to worry about. He could feign it and say that he was just lusting after him. But he and Dream Roy had had a chat about more dream rules, and during the sex he was too lust-filled to notice whether or not Dream Roy was being taken over by actual Roy. And judging by the weird pauses that Ed had ignored the past night during their love-making he could safely assume that "You know?"

Roy's eyebrows furrowed in frustration and his frown deepened, "Yes. What the hell are you doing in my dreams?"

Edward flushed, "None of your business. If you hadn't butted in-"

"It's my business! It's me you're having sex with! I thought you said it was over!" Roy interrupted.

"Your dream self actually cares about me!" Edward retaliated, "He doesn't care that I'm gay-likes it, actually, by the sex we've been having-he listens to me when I have something to tell him, and he doesn't blow off my feelings as if I were just a peon!"

"You're part of the military, Edward!" Roy ran a frustrated hand through his hair and put the other on his hip, "You ARE a peon!"

"Just because I said it was over with you," Edward's voice lowered considerably and became more husky, making Roy give him his full, undivided attention, "It didn't mean it was over with your dream self as well. I didn't break my affections for you off because I wasn't infatuated with you physically anymore, it was because you're a dick."

"Affections, for me?" Roy chuckled, "You still have them! Otherwise you'd be going through your teammates like a rabbit."

One mistake Roy had made was not having a desk between him and Edward, and he realized this too late as the former alchemist rushed up to him, grabbed his collar, and slammer his head against the couch as he kneeled over him. Seething with anger, the blonde spat out, "Don't ever THINK that my teammates are a bunch of sex toys. They never were and they never will be. Don't group me with you."

"_I'm ready, Nadele. I'm sure whatever is in my dreams I can handle," Roy assured her, the morning light coming in through the villa window heating up the skin on his back._

_Nadele simply stared at him like she always did when she was contemplating words, and then closed them, "Alright. Stand still and don't move no matter how much it hurts."_

_Roy was about to inquire what that meant when Nadele started walking towards him…and them _into _him. As Nadele had warned, the pain was monstrous. He felt like someone was ripping him apart, tendon by tendon, vein by vein, each molecule in his body being lit on fire and pricked with the sharpest pins, but also felt like a part of his soul was trying to enter back into his and was having a hell of a painful time of it. Roy could feel Nadele turning him around with his back facing the bed before he blacked out from the pain and fell backwards._

"_Edward is still asleep right now and still dreaming. You will see him soon," Roy could hear Nadele's voice echo in the darkness surrounding him. He couldn't breathe nor could see, but he didn't need to. He soon saw a colored light shining faintly above his head, which he was falling towards slowly. Roy closed his eyes again-to no avail-and felt himself finally standing with light shining as if he were in a spacious room._

_He dared to open his eyes, and surveyed the room he was in quickly. Peach colored walls, a mahogany coffee table and a stand on the other side of the room, three passageways, two into the kitchen and one into the hall which lead to the stairs and laundry room, and next to the coffee table was his brown leather couch. And on the couch was-_

"_My polo shirt? What's it doing here?" Roy walked over to said couch and picked up the lightly colored top in confusion. A faint, blurred, and bright image of a nude woman appeared to Roy's right. He could tell it was Nadele by the brown hair in a ponytail she used to wear and the pale skin that was only accented by the white light shining from it. Luckily for him it was too bright to see any details, and she looked more like his mother again._

_The woman turned her head towards Roy, "It was shed by your dream self. Go upstairs and I will follow and your questions will be answered."_

_Roy quirked his mouth in half-disbelief and did as Nadele requested. Making it through what he now recognized as his house in East Central, Roy jogged up the stairs and made his way into his bedroom with Nadele's assistance. And once he opened the door, he was met with a sight that he both feared and craved most._

_He-or rather, his nude dream self, was laying flat on the bed, wrinkled sheets tossed haphazardly under him. His back was slightly arched up from the bed in pleasure, and his eyes were closed shut while his mouth was open to let his moans reach the person above him. _

_Roy shook with rage at the recognition of the golden hair. His fists were clenched and his teeth chattered with anger, "What is Edward doing here?"_

_Nadele answered with a simple, "You can do whatever you want. While in this state you cannot touch anyone's dream self."_

_Roy whipped his head around a few times to clear his head, but that only gave him a headache, "What the hell?" He didn't have to put his mask on around Nadele, especially not now. "What the fucking hell? You said this would answer my questions? Why am I dreaming about having sex with Edward? I never wanted him that much!"_

_Nadele smirked at the confession, though the light emanating from her body wouldn't let Roy see it, "As I told you, two or more dream selves who meet in a steady, solid, disrupted dream have to have an agreement over a common goal. You are not conscious in your dream self's body, nor are you asleep, so that means something else has to be anchoring you to the dream."_

"_You mean Edward's dreaming about this?"_

"_He is actually the one facilitating the dream," Nadele said in a monotone voice, "He is conscious and knows what he is doing. Were he not conscious this dream would be broken off."_

"_You mean he's RAPING me?"_

"_You were actually the one having sex with him in the first place. You actually woke him up while licking his neck during foreplay," Nadele responded calmly, "Nevermind him being his 16-year-old self again. From then on Edward has been conscious during his dreams and has forced himself to dream this, and your dream self would be having sex with him until orgasm and that is when Edward would be shocked awake."_

_Roy didn't care for the specifics-he was watching Edward writhe above his dream self. The small, lithe form that Edward used to be had one automail hand caressing his face, and his human hand was running up and down Roy's muscled stomach, slowly touching each of the abs like a feather would. And Edward's…Ed's…he was inside of Dream Roy, pushing in and out, each breath that he took in time with each pump and Ed's own abs rubbing against Dream Roy's-_

"_Take me out of here now," Roy snarled, "Next time I see him I'll…I'll…!"_

_Nadele smiled to herself, "Okay, as you wish." And took Roy out of the dream the same way they came. And they left, but not before Roy could hear two strangled screams of pleasure and the slapping of skin stopping as Edward's dream came to a close._

"I saw what you did to me last night, Edward. Don't blame me if by the way you were acting your libido must be too high to stop. You would've been using your subordinates and you know it," Roy snarled back, remembering what Nadele showed him. This memory led him to snarl his rage again and raise his fist back to aim at Edward's nose.

Edward was a fighter. Roy knew this. But Edward never thought that Roy would hit him with his bare hands. He believed that Roy would never hurt him. And that is why Edward went flying with a fractured cheekbone through the couch he was just sitting on to crash head-first into the wall behind the couch.

"You're lucky my subordinates are all investigating the town today, you _slut_," Roy seethed under his breath but loud enough for Edward to hear. Edward, who was still in the wreckage of fallen lamps and cupboard and trying to get up, reacting unpleasantly to these words and got up too fast for his brain to handle. Using the wall to slowly get up so he could retaliate, Ed spit the blood out of his mouth fitfully and glared at his superior officer.

"You can't hit me!" Roy snorted, "Who do you think I am-" And Roy went slamming into the wall, centimeters away from the window where he might have gone tumbling into the street. A car passed by at the moment that Roy got back up and rushed Edward, the crumbled wall that fell off at his body's impact flying after him.

The two went down in a flurry of fists and biting, snarling in rage and spitting insults at the other.

:~H.n.R.~:

Meanwhile, Nadele had led Nicolas up the stairs, and instead of going to her and Roy's bedroom she led him to the door right in front of the stairs. It was empty except for two beds, a nightstand, a lamp, and a closet.

Nadele motioned for Nick to sit on one of the beds and he complied, trusting Nadele as his new partner in the military.

"So, what are you gonna say, then?" Nicolas asked cheerfully, completely trusting the same Nadele he ran from a grandpa with only hours before.

Nadele, with no expression, sat on the other bed and faced him. This lack of expression struck growing fear and panic into Nicolas, until Nadele completely changed and started to smile warmly, "You and Ed are so great together!"

Nick sputtered, "What? What do you mean? We haven't even fought together!"

"No, silly," Nadele let out a giggle and covered her mouth in embarrassment, "I mean as a couple, you numbskull!"

Nick coughed and gagged on nothing again, "Oh, we're not a couple!"

"You sure look like one! And a _cuuuuute_ one at that! Cuties!"

"B-but I have no intention…"

"You'd better!" Nadele snarled, and then softened again, "Hehe, because I can't imagine you with anyone else!"

Nick snorted and looked away at the wall above the nightstand, "Yeah, well, Ed doesn't like me. He likes someone else…I can tell."

Nadele waved it off, "Hah! He's just in turmoil 'cause he got dumped. But he really likes you! I can see him trying to cheer you up. He only wants to get in your good graces! What else could that mean? You could _easily_ date him!"

Nicolas turned his head partially back to where it was to glance at Nadele, "You really think so?" He wasn't fazed anymore by people knowing things he thought they hadn't seen.

Nadele nodded reassuringly, "Yup! You should definitely go for him!"

Nicolas took a deep breath, and sighed for a long moment, looking down at his shoes. Then he closed his eyes, opened them, and looked up at Nadele with determination, "Okay. Since we're friends, I'll take your advice." The brunette twitched at his mention of being friends with her, but she didn't show it and instead nodded exaggeratedly to cover it up.

When Nick looked down at his hands with glee and apprehension, Nadele let herself have one wicked smile, her straight, light brown hair slightly curling, slightly darkening for a moment, her eyes darkening to a raven blue, and then she went back to the state Nicolas left her in, still smiling as any toddler would.

:~H.n.R.~:

Downstairs, déjà vu was hitting Roy and Edward rather hard. For one was on top of the other, despite the fact that Roy was now on top, laying on each other and trying to catch their breath. They were not doing anything sexual-rather, their faces were covered it cuts, bruises, and blood, and their clothing was torn, especially their shirts. Roy's polo shirt was mostly unbuttoned and rips were left to uncover the parts of his chest not shown by the undone buttons, and Ed's military had been discarded during the fight to make himself lighter and more lithe and the black muscle shirt left under it had been ripped when Roy had tried to grab him and Ed had jerked away. Which lead to Roy adding a dislocated nose to Ed's fractured jaw, which led to Ed grabbing Roy's cheek and dislocating his jaw with a few well-placed punches. You get the point.

Roy's head was over Ed's left shoulder, his face planted into the carpet as he tried to gulp in as much breath as he could. Edward was attempting to do the same, but with Roy's large chest compressing his and nothing below Ed but the hard floor, he couldn't do much besides try to ask Roy to get off. But with the current situation he was in-and lack of air he had-he had failed to do so and was left with still trying to get enough air to push Roy off.

In the next few breaths that took place, Roy's nipples had pushed up enough to push up against Ed's and rub right over them. Getting stuck above Edward's, this made it harder for Roy to breath, and Roy lifted his head to glare at Edward. Meanwhile, Edward was trying to dislodge Roy's nipples by breathing harder but was overtaken by the lack of breath he had and the small amount of pleasure it gave him, and did not notice Roy's look.

The hard breathing paid off, though, because Roy's nipples went back down over Ed's, and both lost a big sigh of air at the pleasure that caused, making Roy lose all feeling in his lower torso and his stomach dropped onto Ed's. Not only did this make Ed lose even more air, but he could feel every sweaty, hard contour of Roy's chest and stomach now, and it turned him on to the point that he began to harden.

'_Oh no!' _Ed started to panic as he could feel his penis rising, _'Roy'll feel it and hit me again! And with the loss of control over ourselves and the close proximity which we are in…and how _strong _he is (unnnh)…he could really hurt me!' _If he had said this out loud he knew someone would have rolled their eyes, but he didn't have enough blood or oxygen in his head to think clearly.

So Ed decided he would rock side to side until Roy was dislodged and fell on the floor next to him. Little did he know that Roy could feel Ed's hardened cock sliding against the inside of his legs, and his own cock started to pulse at this. _'Goddammit, no! Not at a time like this!'_

Soon, Ed's cock started sliding against Roy's, and Roy started to moan into Edward's neck, and then at Ed's face as Roy arched his neck back in pleasure. Edward was only shifting his hips now in an effort to get Roy to moan more, and the moment Roy opened his eyes and stared right into Edward's, they both stopped all movement and all breathing and simply stared at each other.

Their lips crashed together and their hands tangled behind the others' backs and in their hair, their only goal to now kiss each other into oblivion. Roy ignored the searing pain coming from his jaw, but when he winced in pain when Ed had missed Roy's mouth and hit his jaw with his lips, Edward pulled away, quickly popped Roy's jaw back into place, and went back to ravishing the man's mouth. Soon, lips were opened and tongues were tied and rubbing against each other sensually in the same way their clothed dicks were sliding against each other's'.

The two men started to pump their mouths to meet the other's with a bang of lips and teeth and a deep-throating of each other's tongues into their throats. Hands started to wander and rub any skin that they could find, and when there was none shirts were ripped and shed and fingernails started to scratch hungrily for more skin to feel. Then, Roy moved his hips up and balanced himself on his knees, which he placed farther back, and then slammed back down on Ed's hips and slid upwards at the last moment with expertise.

With each rub of tongue of cock against each other, with each rub of hands against perky nipples and wet, sweaty muscles, the two men lost themselves even more than they already had and were soon acting on purely lust. At which Roy accidentally knocked his forehead against Ed's and both reared in pain, retracting their hands and tongues and stopping the movement of their clothed cocks against each other's, the cloth covering them already soaked in their precum.

"Ah, dammit!" Edward gulped in breath, remembering what they had done earlier. Roy had done the same and flew back from Edward's body, the horror at what he had done finally reaching him as he gulped in huge breaths. He and Edward had already said they weren't going to see each other! And then Ed went back on his promise! However, he had just…done this when he already made a point of being homophobic.

Roy groaned-this time in _dis_pleasure-and growled out, "Get in my bedroom."

Ed's eyes widened marginally and he snapped his head up, the action disagreeing with his headache, "What?"

"There are clothes in my bedroom you can borrow. Or transmute whatever you need. Just get out…please."

Edward blinked and frowned, his expression soft and calculating. He finally decided Roy just needed time to think, and he got up heftily and moved out of the room and up the stairs. Once upstairs he realized he forgot to ask where Roy's room was, but after smelling the same cologne that Roy had been sweating off when they were making out, he knew it was to the right of the stairs and followed the scent into the room.

Downstairs, Roy moaned in pain and went into the kitchen to get a rag and some ice out of the freezer. He wrapped up the ice in the rag and pressed it to his head, and then snorted in realization to move the ice bag to his throbbing dick. _'God dammit…'_

'_How could I have done that? How could I have stooped to his level?' _Roy leaned against the marble counter and wiped his face slowly with his other hand, and then leaned back further to stare aimlessly at the ceiling, _'Nadele was right…I am infatuated with him. He can definitely move with expertise…I guess my dream self taught him well. I want no more right now than to go up to my bedroom, push Ed down on the bed and fuck him from behind, and I know he would comply. So what is keeping me from it…? Nadele can be suppressed-she came from me, for Gate's sake. And Ed already said he wasn't using, and never would use, any of his subordinates, but that doesn't mean he isn't in a mutual relationship with one of them…what if he is two-timing, and wants more than one person all to himself now that loyal military have bowed down to him?' _Roy lowered his head to glare at nothing in particular. _'I'm going to make him focus on nothing but me.'_

**A/N: Hehe, oh Roy, you naughty man. Ed, too. **

**It is now summer vacation! I am going on vacation soon, though, and I have summer work. .' So that means I'll try to update as soon as possible now that I have so much free time! Yay!**

**Also, if you read my RoyxEd one-shot "Welcome to the Black Parade", I will be continuing that into a story as well. So watch out for that! It's going to be much darker than this, and I'm looking forward to writing it!**

**For you Homestuck lovers, I recently uploaded an OC fic called Askew. Don't forget to read that as well!**

**For those of you who like RoyxEd fluff and angst and cuteness all together, coupled with a really good yaoi writer? Check out Winds of Water and her "At Gate's Edge" fic! I love her so much, and I can't wait for her next update. Don't be thrown off by the amount of chapters there are-I loved it every step of the way. **

**Well, that's all for now! See ya next chapter!**


	16. Chapter 15

**To RedChain:**

_**Thank you! I'm glad you think that. As it is, here's the next chapter.**_

**To Witty Katts:**

_**Blow up Nadele for being a meanie!**_

**To Suezanne:**

_**I looked up the song, and what I read had me immediately agreeing with you. Speaking of "Kiss With A Fist", I should sample Florence + The Machine, they sound like a band I would like.**_

**A/N: So I'm leaving really soon on vacation! And when I get back I'll be really busy. So I'll update Askew and Welcome to the Black Parade, too! I'm looking forward to it.**

**This chapter is dedicated to all the non-canon shippers. :)**

'How could I have done that?' _Roy leaned against the marble counter and put a hand on his face wearily. Then all of a sudden, he pressed the ice bag closer to his crotch and his eyes shone with determination, '_I am infatuated with him…So what is keeping me from it?...I'm going to make him focus on nothing but me.'

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward, in a tucked button-up shirt and blue jeans, plomped down each step until he nosily reached the bottom with his own clothes in a bag he transmuted from his military pants. Sensing Roy was in the kitchen, he remembered what Nicolas and he had really come here for and made his way into the room. Having more of his senses about him, he was able to take in the damage he truly dealt to his superior officer.

The place where Roy's jaws connected at the joint was red and bruised from Ed's hasty fixture of it, and he had a gash across the bridge of his nose. The man had discarded his torn shirt between the time Ed had gone upstairs and now, and was pressing a large ball of ice to the front of his groin, at which Edward cringed slightly. Roy didn't seem to notice how cold it must've felt, and Ed wasn't sure if he should mention it to him or not. Besides, on his way in he could see a large circular spot on Roy's upper back that was red, bruised, scarred, cut, and slightly bleeding from where he had thrown the older man into the wall. In any other situation, Edward would have sniggered in triumph at the injuries. But he didn't want to ruin his face any more than he had to.

Roy looked up at him, "Yes, Fullmetal?"

Edward snapped to attention, blinking quickly, "Sir, before we leave, I have a request."

"Which is?"

"I want someone from your team to scour the area we have suspected as being the site where the transmutation devices are being made…if you would permit it."

Roy could only immediately think of who he wanted to get rid of, and his fogged brain could not consider the consequences of what might happen if she found out as he answered, "Yes, of course. One of my newer subordinates would do."

Edward nodded a thank you and watched Roy slink out of the room to get said subordinate. About five minutes later he saw Nicolas walking through the living room, glancing at Edward with curiosity and shock as he passed, and not long after Roy lead a brunette into the room.

Being an alchemist, Edward could sense when an alchemic reaction was taking place. Hell, he could sense when energy was flowing through the air and recognize it better than the normal human. But being an alchemist who mainly practiced Amestrian alchemy, he could not feel it as strongly as he liked.

As the brunette walked into the kitchen, Edward faintly recognized the woman who closely resembled Nicolas, but after a few moments of contemplation, he completely gave up on identifying the woman in his memory. Besides, he had a bad history of staring at women and them thinking he was interested.

"As you said, you wanted someone who could easily get information," Roy drawled, "Please report back to me in no more than two days."

Edward nodded and saluted sharply, "Noted, sir. Thank you, sir," and motioned for the woman to follow him out of the house.

The blonde and his new subordinate met Nicolas outside, who was nervously rocking back and forth on his heels. When he saw the two his eyes lit up in glee and he rushed over to meet them.

"Is this our spy?" Nicolas mouthed. Edward nodded. This caused Nicolas to smile and turn to face the woman and wink at her. The woman game a small smile back, and Edward looked confused at the whole transition but didn't say anything as they walked back to Ed and Nicolas's hotel room.

As they walked, Nadele fell farther and farther behind as the two men started to chat about meaningless things and thought to herself about what exactly her plan to attempt to get rid of Edward exactly would be. She hadn't really thought it through when she told Roy her plan at the scene of the fire, but there was no way in hell she'd let him know that.

As for Edward, she really did have a deep hate for him. _She_ was meant to be Roy's desire, not anyone else, especially not this midget! Actually, she had a hate for every bit of humanity. At first it was just for the girls Roy started to lust after in his teenage years, but after she realized-before Roy did-that he had a secret like for his own gender as well, she found she could trust no one but herself to take care of Roy. She was the one who had told Roy to save Ed instead of taking him to a hospital when the boy had collapsed on his office floor, she was the one who advised Roy that taking this alchemist from Risembool was a wise thing to do which would also increase his power, she was the one who told Roy to make him a better person and teach him the ways of the world so that he could control a possible weapon of mass destruction, and all of this she deeply regretted. Sure, Roy listened to her, even if not on the scale she instructed him on, but instead of simply taking a more humane path on her advice like she had thought, Roy had actually been harboring _feelings_ for the teen!

She was his desire!

She took on Roy's mother's form so that she could have a host, not so she could be thrown away and ignored as soon as her host found someone else to love! Roy should love her! She was easy access and took on the object of his desire, so as long as he kept loving Ed she would look like him and Edward wouldn't even come into the picture! Roy had show an interest only in the body, not in any other part of a human being, so why the hell was he ignoring her? She spoke the truth, and alchemists followed the Truth, and Roy was an alchemist! She simply didn't understand why Roy got offended every single time she said what she thought, which in effect really is what Roy thinks. If he really was that insecure then he should jump off a bridge. At least she wouldn't be subject to this misery and regret that plagued her at her decision to take on the wrong male as a host.

Soon, the trio arrived at the hotel, neither of the two males able to remember who Nadele was to them still. They entered at a leisurely pace and went upstairs to Ed and Nick's lodgings.

"So," Edward began, pacing back and forth in front of the two brunettes, "your name again?"

"Nadele."

Edward's pupils shrunk quickly, and he paused to look away from his subordinates. Nadele…that name sounded familiar. He remembered someone telling him that that was her name. He could make out some brown flashes in his memory, some blue…but someone grunted in the background and they were snatched from his head like someone snatching paper from under his hands. Someone was making him forget something…what was he trying to remember?

"Nadele," Edward turned back around, "I want you to scour out the southwest side of the middle of the forest northeast of the town. Find out what you can, stay low, and report back to me as soon as possible. We'll put together our findings on this and report to Colonel Mustang afterwards."

_Why isn't he calling him a bastard anymore? _Nicolas vaguely wondered while Nadele nodded and confirmed that she would take the job. As she exited the room to prepare and go on her new mission, Nicolas remembered something that Nadele had told him while they were at her lodgings.

"_Yup! You should definitely go for him!"_

Nicolas looked down at his clasped hands in frustration, then back up at the blonde major from Investigations. What method should he choose…? He quickly came up with the method of rushing up to Edward and kissing him dry, which turned him on undoubtedly, but he wasn't sure Edward would reciprocate well to being roughly handled himself. Could he hug him? No, Edward wasn't outwardly soft, and if he was, he'd suspect Nicolas of being a stalker or something or the sort. What about a verbal admission? Yes, that might work…

"Sir?"

Edward stopped in his tracks and whipped his ponytail over his shoulder to look at Nick, "Hm?"

"I…I have a confession to make," Nicolas stuttered slowly, to make sure he was heard by the former alchemist correctly. Edward blinked in surprise and turned around fully, "Well, out with it? You've interrupted my train of thought."

That last sentence struck Nicolas's now-quickly beating heart rather painfully, and the young man took a sharp intake of breath that was almost inaudible to Edward. The blonde titled his head to the side as he watched Nicolas's head fall to look at his hands and lap again, his fingers starting fidget nervously and his toes starting to tap on the carpet. He was sure his subordinate was bit his lip too, as small spurts of blood fell onto Nick's thumbs. All of a sudden, whispers and whistles of breath came out of the man's mouth that Edward's strained to hear.

"What? I couldn't hear you…" Edward kneeled down directly in front of Nicolas, his knees spread wide open for balance and his elbows resting on his knees, the blonde's hands falling right under Nick's. This didn't help the brunette to speak louder, and the sudden close proximity of the two men threw Nicolas's hidden blush into a sudden hyper drive and the brunette drew back from Edward. After a minute of deciding to himself, the brunette slowly leaned forward again and took Ed's hands in his. Ed leaned forward to get more balance and the two men's faces drew closer because of it. Ed's golden eyes shone with wonder and confusion, and Nick could barely glance in the wonderfully handsome man's direction.

"Ed, I know this is a bad time…" Nicolas whispered. Edward shook his head defiantly and said, "You're my friend! I can handle it, I know I can. Don't be afraid to say things to me. Last time that happened…" Ed looked down guiltily, then whipped his head back up to stare with determination right into Nick's eyes, "I won't let that happen again. Not to you."

Nick's heart seemed to skip and beat and the saliva he swallowed was sure to make a sound even Ed could hear. The brunette's lower lip quivered, as did his hands, and he put a tighter grip on Ed, who reciprocated the gesture to reassure his subordinate.

The two of them stayed like that, one sitting hunched forward on the bed and the other crouched on the ground, staring into each other's eyes and slowly losing consciousness of the outside world as they continued to focus on each other. Both of them eventually ended up freezing, all quivering that took place because of nerves or muscle fatigue stopping. Neither blinked, took an audible breath, or dared to shoo away a bug or a lock of hair that happened to fall at this inopportune time. And slowly, as Nicolas broke the new rules of physics and started to lean forward, and _blink_, and _BREATHE_, Edward realized that Nick actually was getting closer to his face without any expression. At any other time he would have taken this to mean he was about to be kissed but his brain was frozen at this time as well, waiting so long for Nick to admit his worries that he was practically brain dead. And meanwhile, Nick kept getting closer, and closer, and his lips started moving as if he was talking but they were just working themselves in preparation for when they would meet Ed's, and his eyelids quivered slightly in anticipation, ready to close as soon as Edward's would in pleasure.

About a millimeter away from Edward's face, Nick suddenly jerked backwards, took a hold of Ed's collar, and flipped both of them so that the blonde was thrown onto the bed and Nick would straddle him. The brunette landed on the blonde's crotch, and Ed groaned loudly, trying not to be too noisy but obviously pleasured because his body was still in a mood after what he had done…

Nick was ready to do the same when he shook Edward by his collar and threw his superior officer's head back into the comforter twice, "What's wrong with you? Why are you doing this? I can't deal with it anymore! Just stop!" Nicolas then threw Edward's collar down in disgust, got off of him, and stalked out of the door, leaving Ed's head to bounce on the bed until it settled. Through all of this Ed was still staring at the place Nick's eyes were previously at, confusion befuddling his mind and his thought processes failing to aid him as to what the hell Nick was talking about.

As far as Ed could muster his thoughts, he thought nothing related to lust could be part of his young friend's problem.

:~H.n.R.~:

_There are a lot of people on this train_, a train passenger thought. At the moment, she was staring out the window of the train as it slowed to a stop in East City's main train station, her cheek resting on her hand. Her gaze swept over the prevalent crowds of bustling people, either waiting for their own rides or eagerly excited to pick up relatives for the holidays. Her own friend said he wouldn't be able to make it, but she waved it off, saying it was okay, and she wanted to see his work, anyways.

Her blue eyes disappeared momentarily after each bored blink as the train continued to slow down, and soon she thought that they couldn't be moving, but stewardesses were still standing up in the aisles and at the doors, warning anyone who tried to stand up before it was time to sit down, calmly and slowly please, as not to disturb anyone else or harm themselves. Personally, the blue-eyed passenger thought them crazy and she entertained herself with the thought that she could ride a bicycle through this train at the "speeds" they were going at now without harming herself. Finally, the stewardesses moved out of the way hurriedly, giving the other passengers the message that they could stand up and get off as they pleased, with last minute warnings not to trample others. The girl continued to sit down, a bored expression still on her face, and still watching the crowd, waiting for most of the others she rode with to get off before she dared to enter the fray of eager passengers.

Once most of the families and solo travelers had exited the wooden vehicle, the girl slowly rose with a finishing stretch and got her two bags from the overhead compartment. Luckily they were not bruised up from other people hastily pulling their baggage off.

When she reached the exit, she bounced down the steps as she walked, and stood on the edge of the platform and inhaled the cold city air slowly. Exhaling with a small smile on her face, she took the map her friend had given her out of her coat pocket and started walking towards where her friend's workplace was.

After about five blocks of walking, the blue-eyed girl spotted a small café where they sold croissants and almost squealed. She loved bakery goods like these, and fully intended on buying many and hunting down the cook until he revealed all of his delicious, little, butter-encrusted secrets.

She bought ten croissants-this was nothing to her-and thanked the chef, deciding not to bother him and wishing him a happy holidays as well. As she turned to leave, one of the waitresses rushed up to her and inquired about who she was.

"You're a very pretty young girl!" she spoke with a sharp East City accent that reminded the blue-eyed girl of something reminiscent of Central, "Where are you from?"

"I came from Risembool," the girl responded cheerfully, the packages of treats warming up her hand quickly, "I just arrived at the station-but I'm sick of all those stops they take along the way. It used to be a trip from just there and back!"

The waitress clapped her hands together, "Amazing! Girl, I know what you mean. Those can be really rough, those trains. Well, I wish you well!" And then she winked with a, "Don't forget to share those," and ran off with a giggle and a blush. The girl, at first, was offended, but then she smiled sweetly and waved at the people inside the café and left again for her destination.

As she approached a crosswalk and had to wait, she looked up at the sullen, gray sky and the white puffy clouds that inhabited it. A small snowflake landed on her nose, and she sneezed to get it off.

"I really hope that big buildings are well-insulated," the girl muttered with a grin.

:~H.n.R.~:

"There."

The final pencil flick on the final musical note was made on the final piece Alphonse had to write for the day. The dirty blonde groaned and stretched in his chair, his belly being exposed because of it. The young man settled back into his seat and pulled his shirt back down with a chuckle, "How did I ever think I could enjoy this?"

Getting up from his chair, Al exited the office and went down the hallway back into the main theater. The size of it, even after two years of being here, still amazed him, and he grinned at the rounded ceiling when he heard successive knocks at the front door.

_Is that…_ Al wondered as he rushed up to the doors and struggled to pull them open. Luckily, the person on the other side helped him by pushing on the doors, and ended up falling into his arms when they were wide enough.

"Al!"

"Win!"

The two blondes had wide grins on their faces, and brushed noses in a cold-nosed eskimo kiss they both enjoyed. Even though they'd been barely a few days apart, the farther they went into their relationship, the more they couldn't stand it away from each other. Alphonse knew he'd have to move soon. Or Ed would.

Al slipped his hands inside of Winry's puffy, lavender-colored winter jacket around her warm waist, and pulled her into a sweet kiss, Al twisting his head slightly to the side to give Winry more access. Winry hummed appreciatively and straighted up to press further against her boyfriend.

Both of them were still smiling into the kiss as Shirley entered the theater and stared at the couple in wonder. Then, she decided to be a little terror.

"Hey, you two! Is that your girlfriend?"

Al's eyes snapped open in surprise, and he broke the kiss to twist his head to glare at Shirley, "_Yes_, this is my girlfriend, Win-Winry." Al coughed and stepped back from Winry, smiling at her reassuringly, and motioned to Shirley, "Win, this is Shirley. She helps everyone out."

"What he means is I get a low-pay job to babysit conductors," Shirley grinned and flipped her bright red hair over her shoulder, "It's nice to meet you!"

Winry smiled, her nose, cheeks, and ear tips pink from the cold, "It's nice to meet you, too." She still clung onto Alphonse, which made Shirley's face scrunch up.

Both of the blondes couldn't figure out why Shirle was mad all of a sudden, but then the redhead squealed and rushed Winry, picking her up at the waist and lifting her a few inches off the ground, "You're just so _cute!_ Where did you get this one? Does she have any brothers?"

Alphonse growled and took Winry into his own hold from Shirley's vice-grip, "No, she does _not_, and she's my childhood friend."

Shirley pouted, "Geez, spoil-sport."

Winry bonked Alphonse on the head, "I can answer myself! Stop being mean to your friends, Al."

Alphonse pouted in return, trying to come up with a retaliation but failing, and both women laughed at Al's display of defeat.

Shirley, wiping tears from her eyes, finally spoke up, "Well, let's close these doors before the Boss of Satan gets here to make us into glue, and get warmed up while we're at it."

Winry grinned even more at this girl's hospitality, and she smiled up at Alphonse as he settled her down, still not letting go of her waist, "Is anyone else here?"

Alphonse shook his head, "Nope. Holidays."

Winry smirked evilly and hid it behind Al's shoulder where Al couldn't see it but Shirley could, "Perfect." Shirley smirked as well, and Al looked forward warily when he saw this.

Being alone with two women in a building full of instruments was a baaaad idea…

**A/N: Aaaand that's it for now! I'd type more but…I'd rather leave you to think on it. And have fun on all of your summer vacations (if you have it). Otherwise, just enjoy your summer and have a dip in the pool/sit in front of the fire (depending on where you're from). X3**


	17. Chapter 16

**To .limit:**

_**Haha, I am glad chapter 5 had the intended effect. I wasn't sure if I had gone too far. Thanks for your support. Also, I like your review for chapter 14! Hehehe.**_

**To StlkdWldstrk:**

_**Thank you very, **_**very**_** much! And that flashback did cause a lot of confusion. So I'll explain it here:**_

_**The flashback is to when Cevillia's parents first met. They bumped into each other and her mother dropped her things on the floor. Her father, infatuated by her looks and sorry for bumping into her, he invites her out to dinner. He tells her where to meet him and runs off, leaving her no choice but to be courteous and accept his offer.**_

_** At their "date", her mother is still confused as to why he is treating her to dinner. Cevillia's father, who by now has a huge crush on her, almost tells Cevillia's mother that he loves her, but when asked if she wants to hear what's troubling him her mother refuses.**_

_** Worried about this guy, Cevillia's mother talks to her friend about it, and her friend reassures her.**_

_** The next flashback is much after that when Cevillia is born.**_

_** After that is a few years later, when Cevillia is a baby. Her father is starting to concentrate more on his work than his family, but Cevillia's mother doesn't make any comment on it at the time.**_

_** The final flashback is a couple of years later, when her mother final ventures enough down the basement stairs to wonder what her husband is transmuting. He admits that he is making a clone because he realized that he only loved Cevillia's mother for who she was but had no sexual attraction towards her, so he had been studying how to make clones so he could escape right under Cevillia and her mother's noses. Her mother gets furious with him and starts screaming at him, and when she storms back towards the stairs, Cevillia's father gets angry for a split second and transmutes the circle out of habit, killing Cevillia's mother in the process.**_

_**And I had taken Riordan's name from a book around me. I did not know Lasky was that author's name! I've never read the book before, just seen the movie. Thank you, anyway. And by the way, fanfiction doesn't allow links in certain places. Sorry, but I can't see anything before the ".com".**_

**A/N: I haven't updated this story in months.**

**:( I apologize. Greatly. And no excuses this time! Well, none that I'm going to **_**voice. **_**:3**

**As always, I like it when you guys give me recommendations and suggestions and critique. Thank you for all of the support, fangirling (or fanboying), and suggestions that have been expressed by all of you. To be frank,**

**Thanks for reading my crap. Hehehe.**

**On to the story!**

_Winry grinned even more, and smiled up at Alphonse, "Is anyone else here?"_

_Alphonse shook his head, "Nope. Holidays."_

_Winry smirked evilly and hid it so that only Shirley could see, "Perfect." Shirley smirked, too, and Al swallowed warily when he saw this._

_Being alone with two women in a building full of instruments was a very, very bad idea._

:~H.n.R.~:

Nicolas' boots clomped loudly down the cobblestone street as he stomped away from the hotel his unit was staying at. He had a furious look on his face, and his angry haze almost kept him from noticing Nadele in his peripheral vision. But when he did see her, he ignored her and kept stomping.

"Nicolas~"

He continued to ignore her as she started to follow him after realizing he wouldn't pay her any attention.

"Nicolas, what happened? You gotta tell me!" Nadele hobbled after him, a curious smile on her face and eyes sparkling.

"Your stupid plan didn't work, Nadele," Nicolas grumbled.

"Why not?"

Nicolas stopped and whipped around, fists clenched, "Because! I couldn't go through with it!"

Nadele blinked, "Why not? All you have to do is kiss him. He's handsome, strong, smart, has great skills in _every_ area, and is pretty rich as far as we're concerned. Why not?"

Nicolas shook his head, "I don't want to ruin what we have now! He promised he wouldn't make another mistake and ruin our friendship."

"Wouldn't that be an even greater chance to risk something greater?"

"No!" Nicolas snapped, "He wants to be my friend! I can't send him into another tailspin because of my indecision! How am I even supposed to know whether he would even reciprocate my feelings? This is my chance at being normal for the first time in who knows how long anymore. I won't screw it up! I can't!"

Nadele simply blinked at him with mild surprise. After he realized she wouldn't respond to him, Nicolas huffed and sped away in the direction he had been initially walking in. Nadele spun around in the other direction, a shadow clouding over her face.

No! No no no! Every time she thought she had gotten a plan to work her pawns decided they should take another course of action.

She might as well hunt down this guy and get her mission over with. The sooner she tracked the suspect down the sooner she could get back and manipulate Roy into her arms where he rightfully belonged. Or leave him with no one else to turn to.

That meant not only getting rid of Edward, but everyone else Roy knew.

:~H.n.R.~:

Edward lay back on the bed, staring at the ceiling with a blank face. He no longer bothered with trying to figure out what had caused Nicolas to rush away from him like that. He actually had no idea what had gone on in the first place.

He let his head flop to the side with a sigh and glanced at the white object only a foot from his nose. The telephone taunted him, sunlight bouncing off of its surface only barely. Should he call Al? He'd be at work about now. He guessed he could bother him for a moment or two.

"Hey, Al."

His hand lay on the top of the phone, scared to pick it up.

"I'm not sure what I want to do."

He turned his hand over and slowly let his palm rest on the phone.

"I don't know if I can do what I want to at this point."

His fingers curled around the receiver.

"Roy and I went farther today than I thought we could get in five months of any relationship. I hurt him badly. Physically I mean. Don't get all sappy on me now…"

His fingers curled tighter. His finger joints started to painfully scream at him.

"And then one of my subordinates did…I don't know what he was trying to do. I think he wanted to push me but all I got out of it was confusion and pleasure. I-I mean, he landed somewhere he wasn't supposed to."

He tried to pick up the receiver but ended up picking up the whole phone and slamming it back onto the small desk. Clenching his teeth in sudden anger, he rolled onto his other side and closed his eyes.

He was still for many moments, and then suddenly Ed's arm shot out towards the phone. He quickly dialed Alphonse's work number and held the phone up to his ear. Before he could hang up, he heard a polite, "_Hello?_" from the other end.

"Alphonse!"

:~H.n.R.~:

"Edward? Are you oka-well, as okay as you usually are_._" Alphonse twiddled the cord around his fingers, sitting down in his chair and avoiding Winry's gaze.

"_No, I'm not okay._"

Al frowned. A confession was very unusual.

"Spit it out."

"_I did something bad, Al._"

Winry leaned forward as Al's frown deepened, "Who is it?"

Alphonse mouthed his brother's name and went back to listening to Ed continue.

"_I had to go to Mustang's house and we started hurting each other and then we made out and then when I got back to the room I was sharing with one of my subordinates he tried to confess something to me but then he sat on my dick and then left because he was angry with me but I did nothing! I d-did noth-nothing!"_

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, Ed! Breath!" Alphonse leaned forward in his seat, eyebrows furrowed, "Take a deep breath."

"_Al, I d-_"

"Don't you talk until you take a deep breath and calm down," Al instructed. He could hear his brother whimpering on the other side of the line and ragged breaths every few moments.

"_...Alll…_"

"Yes?"

"_What do I do? W-what do I do, I don't know._"

"You're going to take each step one by one."

"_But I'm confused and my face hurts._"

"Why are you confused, then?"

"_Because I don't even know what Mustang and Nicolas feel._"

"Well, from what it sounds like, you and Mustang beat each other up, then you ended up making out."

Winry's eyes bugged out and she half-grinned. Alphonse glared back at her.

"_Y-yeah, that's what we did._"

"So, it looks like Roy actually likes you. A lot."

"_But he said-_"

"Screw what he said. It's highly probable that Mustang's hiding something. We both know what he's like."

"_But I thought he…he wouldn't…to me? But to me…_"

"You're the same as everyone, Ed. Not exactly, but pretty damn close. Besides, from what I gather, Mustang's never been in what we would consider a real relationship. He wouldn't know how to react to someone wanting that with him that he knows will not be turned down easily. And you have to think that Roy has made a point of saying that he's straight. Even if he were truly gay or bisexual, for some reason he's not going to discontinue a long-practiced façade easily."

"_Y-yeah…_"

"And I wasn't there at the time-thank the Gate-but you're going to have to discern whether or not Roy made out with you because you were just there and he was angry, or because his façade broke."

"_O-okay. Okay brother._"

"So, now, what's this with Nicolas?"

"_A-are you alone?_"

Alphonse paused and let out a little noise that was close to a sigh. He glanced at Winry, then said, "No. Winry is in the room with me."

"_Anyone else?_"

"We're the only ones in the room."

"_Send Winry out. It's none of her business._"

Alphonse pursed his lips and looked back at Winry. She stared back with big blue eyes, shining with curiosity and patience.

"He wants you to leave the room."

"I'm as concerned for him as you are, Al," Winry shook her head as she spoke, "I'm going to stay in here and intervene if I need to."

"_NO! GET OUT WINRY!" _Edward sounded like he was shouting simply so that Winry could hear him.

"NO ED!" Winry replied.

"_Oh my god!_"

"Sorry, Ed. I guess she's not leaving."

"_Whatever. Anyway…_" Ed took a long pause. "_Nicolas came back with me to our room. That we share. And he was troubled about something. So I asked him about it and told him I wouldn't betray him like the last time I hurt his feelings. O-our faces got close. And then he pushed me back…o-on my bed! And he accidentally sat…and then he got angry and left. And then I called you soon..soon after."_

"Looks like Nick's got a crush on you~"

"_WhaWHAT?! And don't call him that, he's Nicolas."_

"Oh sure. To both of that."

"_Al! I can't handle it if both of them have crushes on me!_"

"You pimp~!"

"_Are you even listening?"_

Winry snatched the phone from Alphonse who let out a loud guffaw before going into full-on, belly-bursting laughter.

"You listen here you shrimp. There comes a time in your handsome little life where there are going to be romantic difficulties. What you have to do is sort your feelings out and work toward the goal your feelings have already paved the road towards."

"_My feelings are telling me squat, Win!_"

"They're giving you all the answers, Edward. Your job is to understand their language."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. Winry could barely hear Edward's breathing. Then it came.

"_Alright…_

…

…

_BUT IF IT DOESN'T WORK I TAKE BACK EVERYTHING I'VE EVER BOUGHT YOU! YOU CAN KEEP THE STINKIN' EARRINGS THOUGH, YOU BATTY WITCH!_"

"GO SUCK A DICK YOU MAD SCIENTIST!" Alphonse shouted out a quick goodbye between laughs before Winry slammed the phone down on the receiver.

She put her fists on her hips and faced Al, "Well, that was easy." Still chuckling, Alphonse wiped away a tear and rolled his eyes at her.

**A/N: So a short little update to get off of this hiatus. I'm pretty sure we all know who Ed will choose but we can dream, right? Besides, who knows what's going to happen between now and then. *cackles***


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